Poly Styrene was the first woman of color to front a punk bank in the United Kingdom in the 1970s. As a mixed race woman heading the band X-Ray Spex, she encountered racism at home and while making a cultural impact. In this new documentary, Poly Styrene: I Am Cliché, her only child Celeste Bell explores her mother, including her inspirations to Riot grrrrl culture, Afropunk, and exploring “her mother’s demons.”
This documentary explores misogyny, racism, mental illness, and family trauma. Poly’s diary entries are narrated by Oscar nominee Ruth Negga. Celeste’s examination of her mother’s archives and impacts is sometimes uncomfortable, but moving. You can tell she’s dealing with her her mother’s importance to others, while still coming to terms with the loss of her. At the start she discuses the thousands of people who came to her mother’s funeral, and how she knew so few of them. There’s a part where Celeste discusses her mom dressing them together in matching Laura Ashley floral dresses at one point, and it gave me flashbacks to my own upbringing.
For fans of punk rock, this film is a must watch. For people exploring their own relationship with their parents, this is a powerful film.
Poly Styrene: I Am Cliché premieres at SXSW 2021.
