Growing up in Newcastle, Kate Hickey's favourite film was the famous (or infamous) 1980 roller-skating disco musical Xanadu.
She used to skate along the beach dressed as Olivia Newton-John's character: a literal goddess who descends to Los Angeles from Mount Olympus.
![The roller-dancing stars of Venice Beach.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170728044954im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/x/j/z/n/7/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gxjy97.png/1501138561788.jpg)
"She was a muse, helping these artists' dreams come true," says Hickey. "That idea really captured my imagination."
Cut to 2007, when Hickey, fresh out of film school, was herself newly arrived in LA. Immediately, she gravitated to the famously free-and-easy neighbourhood of Venice Beach, where parts of Xanadu were shot.
![Hickey unearthed old footage of the roller-dancing scene.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170728044954im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/x/j/z/n/8/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gxjy97.png/1501138561788.jpg)
"It's kind of a mini-Hollywood but it's even better because it's by the ocean," she says.
It didn't take long for Hickey to spot the roller-dancers on the boardwalk; but unlike in the movies, most of the star performers were African-American.
Realising she'd stumbled on a subculture with a complex history, Hickey set out to learn more, forming friendships with some of the "original gangsters" of the Venice scene who had sparked the roller-dancing craze of the 1980s.
"I wasn't really used to people with such big personalities," she says, "and so I became very hooked on getting to know them."
![Film director and editor Kate Hickey at work in Los Angeles.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170728044954im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/x/j/z/n/c/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gxjy97.png/1501138561788.jpg)
The turning point came when Hickey uncovered a trove of video footage of these dancers in their youthful prime, moving in sync or showing off their individual flair. This material was the starting point for Hickey's first feature documentary Roller Dreams, screening at this year's Melbourne International Film Festival.
Hickey took the better part of a decade to complete the film, while finding increasing success in Hollywood as an editor.
![Muse: Olivia Newton-John on the poster for "Xanadu".](http://web.archive.org./web/20170728044954im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/x/k/5/9/7/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gxjy97.png/1501138561788.jpg)
One of her early breaks, as it happens, came on Drew Barrymore's 2009 roller-derby teen movie Whip It. More recently she worked on the final season of Lena Dunham's Girls.
For Hickey, who has studied literature and psychology as well as film, the time spent making Roller Dreams gave her scope to build multiple levels of meaning.
![Kate Hickey (centre) with some of her documentary subjects.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170728044954im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/x/j/z/n/d/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gxjy97.png/1501138561788.jpg)
She sees the dancers as Peter Pan types, with Venice as their Neverland; but also as cultural pioneers who, largely due to racism, have never been celebrated as they deserved.
One crucial challenge was tracking down James "Mad" Lightning, the legendary godfather of the scene, who had long since moved away to Utah.
![A scene from the film.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170728044954im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/x/j/z/n/9/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gxjy97.png/1501138561788.jpg)
"Everyone kept talking about him, the roller guru," says Hickey.
Even when she made contact, he took a while to warm up to her.
"I had to really prove myself, and even ride on the back of his motorbike at great speeds to make him think that I've got some stamina," she says.
As Hickey tells it, Mad's reluctance to take part in the film made him all the more compelling from a dramatic standpoint.
"Mad was an anti-hero and he was a difficult character and that's what pulled the story together for me."
Spending time with him in Utah, Hickey became not just an observer of the story but a participant, encouraging Mad to reconnect with his past.
"That was really my challenge as a documentary maker," she says, "to bring that lightness back to him."
If this is a film about keeping the dream alive, it's also about the inescapable changes brought by time – a theme Hickey says she now understands better than when she first got to know her subjects.
"I was like a cute little Australian girl at the start, where they just liked being around me," she says.
In the years since, she's been through ups and downs of her own, but their bond has only deepened as a result.
"They've always been there for me as my extra family over here."
Roller Dreams screens at 9.15pm August 5 at ACMI and 6.45pm August 7 at Kino as part of the 2017 Melbourne International Film Festival. The Age is a festival partner.
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