Imagine Festival: Poly Styrene: I Am A Cliché

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BBFC Ratingf-rated FilmImagine Festival: Poly Styrene: I Am A Cliché

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Certificate12A
Year2021
GenreDocumentary
Director(s)Paul Sng, Celeste Bell
Writer(s)Celeste Bell, Zoe Howe, Paul Sng
LanguageEnglish
CountryUK
Running Time1HR 36MINS
SeasonImagine! Festival of Ideas and Politics

Artful, lyrical, and moving, Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché looks at the life and legacy of the lead singer with the 1970s punk band X-Ray Spex.

Poly Styrene was the first woman of colour in the UK to front a successful rock band. She introduced the world to a new sound of rebellion, using her unconventional voice to sing about identity, consumerism, postmodernism, and everything she saw unfolding in late 1970s Britain, with a rare prescience. As the frontwoman of X-Ray Spex, the Anglo-Somali punk musician was also a key inspiration for the riot grrrl and Afropunk movements.

But the late punk maverick didn’t just leave behind an immense cultural footprint. She was survived by a daughter, Celeste Bell, who became the unwitting guardian of her mother’s legacy and her mother’s demons. Misogyny, racism, and mental illness plagued Poly’s life, while their lasting trauma scarred Celeste’s childhood and the pair’s relationship.

Featuring unseen archive material and rare diary entries narrated by Oscar-nominee Ruth Negga, this documentary follows Celeste as she examines her mother’s unopened artistic archive and traverses three continents to better understand Poly the icon and Poly the mother.

You are invited to join the Imagine! Festival in discussing the big issues of our times including new ideas on politics, culture and activism. There’s something for everyone in the festival programme at imaginebelfast.com

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