New Trailer For Poly Styrene: I Am A Cliché Film
- Written by Marky Edison
This week marks the 6th anniversary of punk icon Poly Styrene’s tragic passing, leaving behind a truly unique legacy, an inspiration to countless people across the world from all walks of life. To coincide with this and the 40th anniversary of the seminal X-Ray Spex album Germfree Adolescents, a new film called Poly Styrene: I Am A Cliché is in the works. Fund-raising continues via IndieGoGo, with a cinema date set for November 2018. In celebration, the site will also be listing a number of rare X-Ray Spex posters and original vinyl LPs in the final week of the campaign.
Bi-racial, female, working class and possessing one of the most satirical perspectives in punk, X-Ray Spex founder Poly Styrene was, as Billboard proclaimed, "one of the least conventional front-persons in rock history". Poly was responsible for some of the most original, intelligent and exiting music ever made, but beyond the songs, the look and that warrior-cry voice, her fascinating and sometimes frightening story, incorporating struggles with misogyny, racism and mental health issues, has remained largely untold. Until now.
In this feature-length documentary, the jigsaw pieces of Poly’s life will be brought together for the first time. Original interviews, new research and previously unseen archive material are combined to present a thrilling, poetic and at times impressionistic portrait of a singer, seeker and mother. Underscored with Poly’s music from throughout her career, I Am A Cliché celebrates one of punk’s most uncompromising icons.
Narrated by Poly’s daughter Celeste Bell, the film will examine the past through the lens of the present, by revisiting pivotal moments and significant spaces in Poly’s history, while at the same time raising awareness of the issues she struggled with - and rose above - throughout her life. I Am A Cliché director Paul Sng has previously won widespread acclaim for his film Sleaford Mods - Invisible Britain. The film was written by Zoë Howe, who penned the biographies Typical Girls? The Story of The Slits and Barbed Wire Kisses - The Jesus and Mary Chain Story.
