Poly Styrene was the first woman of color 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.
What the critics are saying:
More than a journeyman rockumentary, “Poly Styrene” is a thoughtfully
finessed filial reckoning: a daughter’s journey toward understanding her
mother as a young artist and as a young woman of color.
Lisa Kennedy
New York Times
Above all else this is a love-letter to the woman behind Poly Styrene as
much as it is to the ground-breaking punk pioneer herself.
Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
AWFJ Women on Film
This is not a banal or mundane fake-objective music history doc: it's an
almost real-time chronicle of a daughter coming to grips with a
mother's legacy.
Glenn Kenny
RogerEbert.com