Director of Helen Reddy’s I Am Woman biopic shares heartfelt tribute late singer

Tributes are flowing in for Australian singer Helen Reddy, who died aged 78 in Los Angeles on Tuesday afternoon following her battle with dementia.

Director Unjoo Moon, who worked closely with Reddy on hit biopic I Am Woman, has reflected on their friendship and expressed condolences to Reddy’s family.

In a statement provided to Daily Mail Australia, Moon said: ‘[Reddy] will always be a part of me and I will miss her enormously.’

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The late Melbourne-born songstress and trailblazing feminist activist was best-known for her empowering anthem I Am Woman.

Her other notable hits were Delta Dawn and Ain’t No Way To Treat A Lady. 

Reddy’s inspiring life story in I Am Woman is directed by female filmmaker Unjoo Moon and is from the producers behind The Sapphires, the 2012 movie starring Deborah Mailman, Jessica Mauboy and Chris O’Dowd. 

‘When I first met Helen Reddy she told me that I would be in her life for many years. What followed was an amazing seven-year friendship during which she entrusted me with telling her story in a film that celebrates her life, her talents and her amazing legacy,’ Moon said of working on Reddy’s only authorised biopic. 

Moon met Reddy at a ‘G’Day Australia’ event in Los Angeles in 2013, and was surprised to find that her personal story had never been told.

She spent years gaining Reddy’s trust as friends over lunches and walks on the beach, before crafting the film about her incredible life. 

‘I will forever be grateful to Helen for teaching me so much about being an artist, a woman and a mother. She paved the way for so many and the lyrics that she wrote for I am Woman changed my life forever like they have done for so many other people and will continue to do for generations to come.

‘She will always be a part of me and I will miss her enormously. On behalf of all of us involved in making the film I am Woman, producer Rosemary Blight and I extend our condolences to Helen’s family especially her children Traci and Jordan, her granddaughter Lily and her ex-husband Jeff,’ Moon concluded. 

Reddy’s two children, Traci Donat and Jordan Sommers, made the announcement of her passing on Facebook.

They wrote: ‘It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved mother, Helen Reddy, on the afternoon of September 29th 2020 in Los Angeles.

‘She was a wonderful Mother, Grandmother and a truly formidable woman. Our hearts are broken. But we take comfort in the knowledge that her voice will live on forever.’

Her cause of death has not been confirmed, however since her dementia diagnosis in 2015 Reddy had been living in a nursing home in LA for retired Hollywood talent.      

Reddy was a pioneer behind the women’s rights movement of the 1970s, and her passing comes just months after film I Am Woman depicted the wondrous changes she made throughout her career.

The film follows the early days of Helen’s music career, shortly after she moved to America in the 1970s, in the middle of the women’s rights movement.

Her hit song, I Am Woman, became an anthem for the movement, but it wasn’t without some hardships, with Helen having to convince record executives of its value.

She also had to fight for fair pay, after learning her all-male band was earning more money than she was. 

The biopic features the time Reddy famously won a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal, where she stated in her acceptance speech: ‘I’d like to thank God, because she makes everything possible’.

I Am Woman is available to stream on Stan