Virtual Screening
PRESENTED WITH
Is It Me
Official selection
Glasgow Film Festival 2021
South by Southwest Film Festival 2021
Hot Docs Film Festival 2021
Director
Celeste Bell, Paul Sng
Writer
Celeste Bell, Zoe Howe, Paul Sng
Producer
Rebecca Mark-Lawson, Daria Nitsche, Matthew Silverman
Cinematographer
Nick Ward
Sound Designer
Raoul Brand
Composer
James Adrian Brown, Marina Elderton
Editor
Xanna Ward Dixon
contact
Pacific Northwest Pictures
England, July 1976. Somewhere in the crowd of a (very early) Sex Pistols concert, Marianne Joan Elliott-Said, a half-Scottish, half-Somali teenager in thick dental braces and neon-coloured frocks, sticks out like a sore thumb. Yet she feels at home, thinking to herself, “I can do that, too.” A few months later, she proves herself right by forming X-Ray Spex, a band of “young punx who want to stick it together”, and choosing the stage name Poly Styrene. A rallying energy, raw vocals, and an open disdain for artificiality made Poly Styrene a poster child for the Riot Grrrl and Afropunk movements, as she went on to become one of the most recognizable and unconventional frontpersons in punk history. Sadly, like too many other cultural mavericks of her stature, she passed away at the early age of 53 back in 2011.
Part of Poly Styrene’s legacy lies in her daughter Celeste Bell. As the co-writer and co-director of POLY STYRENE: I AM A CLICHÉ, alongside documentarian Paul Sng, she celebrates the life and times of her mother, while also providing an intimate glimpse into her own tumultuous relationship with the famed icon. Featuring previously unseen archives, a succession of diary entries narrated by Oscar-nominated actress Ruth Negga, and spoken tributes from the likes of Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth), Kathleen Hanna (Bikini Kill) and fashion designer Vivienne Westwood, this crowdfunded documentary immortalizes the true power of Poly Styrene, a fiercely independent woman who paved the way for many musicians and feminists around the world and continues to inspire to this day… “Racist, Sexist Boy”, anyone? – Alyssia Duval-Nguon
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