As a boy, Ed Gibbs watched David Bowie’s 1983 Let’s Dance video on Top of the Pops and was fascinated. Now he has made a film about it. 

The Brixton-based journalist and filmmaker said: “It is the era of Bowie that means to the most to me, personally.

He added: "He had been out of circulation for a while and suddenly to reappear somewhere foreign with a suntan and blonde hair but still looking like an alien playing to these strange people in a pub, it just seemed odd.

“I was always curious about it.”

Thirty years later, Ed and his fellow filmmaker Rubika Shah have made a film about the enigmatic singer, who was born in Brixton and lived for a time in Beckenham.

It is called Let’s Dance: Bowie Down Under. Ed said: “It is very much the MTV era of Bowie’s career, which hasn’t really been examined.

“Let’s Dance was a pivotal moment in his career. It’s when he went from a cult hero to this global superstar. How all that came about was of interest to us.

“The video played an important part of that era. It was more than just a music video.”

One of the things that was unusual about the Let’s Dance video was Bowie’s decision to film in Australia and use aboriginal actors.

Ed said: “It made a pointed statement really about race and used the aboriginal Australians as an example of the point he was trying to make.  We focussed on that video in particular.”

The pair’s film saw them traversing the world tracking down people involved in the shoot, including director David Mallet and collaborator Julian Temple, as well as locals who were involved in the shoot and academics who could talk about its reception.

It was a process that took months.

Ed said: “Our starting point was the girl in the video, Jolene, who had never been interviewed before.

“She had never spoken about her experience of being plucked out of obscurity by Bowie to make this video. It happened to coincide with the birth and boom of MTV so the video got played a lot in America and around the world. It turned out to be his biggest hit record.”

Let’s Dance: David Bowie Down Under gets its UK premiere at the BFI London Film Festival on October 10 and a second screening at Brixton’s The Ritzy on October 12.

Ed said: “It’s a huge deal for us because we live in south London. It’s Bowie’s home town. They’re screening it, much to our delight, in Brixton. It’s something we had hoped for but didn’t think might happen.”

Find out more about the film at facebook.com/letsdancebowiedownunder or London Film Festival at bfi.org.uk/lff