GODDESS OF SLIDE: THE FORGOTTEN STORY OF ELLEN MCILWAINE
SYDNEY PREMIERE

GODDESS OF SLIDE: THE FORGOTTEN STORY OF ELLEN MCILWAINE

SYDNEY PREMIERE
FRIDAY 29th AUG – 6PM

GOLDEN AGE CINEMA & BAR
2025 STROBE Music Film Festival

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Watch the trailer below

Goddess of Slide is a passionate and contemporary story about a rebellious trailblazer in music—a powerful, untold account of an extraordinary artist who shattered barriers and defied the odds.

Most people have never heard of Ellen McIlwaine, but to legends like Muddy Waters, Odetta, Richie Havens, Mississippi John Hurt, Jimi Hendrix, Jack Bruce, Taj Mahal, Bill Withers, Johnny Winter, Joanna Connor, Jennifer Batten, Sue Foley, and Amanda Marshall, she was a pioneer. Ellen was a one-of-a-kind talent: a blistering slide guitarist, a fierce vocalist with a piercing scat-singing screech, and a master of harmony and soul. Her slide technique—using the bottleneck to make chords sag, swoop, and shimmer—was nothing short of staggering. Ellen’s musical journey began on the piano in Japan, but it truly came alive in Georgia, where she attended college during the turbulent early 1960s. Amidst the civil rights movement and the changing role of women in America, Ellen discovered the guitar—and her true voice. She left behind a conventional path, dropping out of her conservative college to pursue music in New York City. Few understood her decision, except perhaps Jimi Hendrix, with whom she shared the stage at the legendary Cafe Au Go Go.

But her true breakthrough came in 1973 at New York’s Carnegie Hall, opening for the American funk band Mandrill. It was there that Ellen’s raw talent, fearless energy, and boundary-breaking sound found a wider audience—and carved her name into the history of modern music.