If you’d been lucky enough to keep company with the likes of Andy Warhol, Mick Jagger and Jim Morrison in the sixties, then you’d be all too familiar with the inimitable Lillian Roxon, the pioneering rock critic who captured the verve of New York City’s music scene for a generation of international readers. A dynamic, iconoclastic trailblazer and a centerpiece at Max’s Kansas City – the legendary club frequented by Warhol and his Factory superstars – Roxon distilled her intimate insights and insider experience into Lillian Roxon’s Rock Encyclopedia, the first important book on rock music. No history of rock would be complete without a chapter on this cultural pioneer and now, thanks to the work of director Paul Clarke, Roxon stars in her own fascinating documentary.
She is credited as the first journalist who saw rock and roll as more than a passing trend; from the outset, she considered it a powerful reflection of a society in revolution. From there we’re whisked away on a behind-the-scenes journey into New York City’s hippest spots, mingling with the likes of John and Yoko, The Velvet Underground and Janis Joplin while hearing Roxon’s lucid, seemingly definitive observations on such icons as Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix and The Doors. Roxon also made a name for herself as an outspoken feminist and had a long, tumultuous friendship with Germaine Greer, who caustically dedicated her groundbreaking feminist text The Female Eunuch to Roxon. In a shockingly frank interview, Greer reveals what really happened between these two brilliant women. –Synopsis provided by Toronto International Film Festival
