Poly Styrene: I Am A Cliché

Celeste Bell tells the story of her mother, Marianne Joan Elliott-Said, better known by her stage name, Poly Styrene. Styrene sang with a rare prescience about identity, consumerism, postmodernism, and everything she saw unfolding in late 1970s Britain. As the frontwoman of X-Ray Spex, the Anglo-Somali punk musician was also a key inspiration for the riot grrrl and Afropunk movements. Compelling and timely, Poly Styrene encompasses issues of belonging and the complexities of race, mental health and feminism, along with wonderful use of archival footage — especially the scenes of punk rock in mid-1970s London and the rise of the Right and its racism toward Blacks, who at that time came to the U.K. primarily from the ex-British colonies in the Caribbean. The film includes comments from icons such as Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, Vivienne Westwood and Neneh Cherry. ~Orly Yadin