Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché + Q&A
<div><b>This screening </b><b>will be followed by a Q&A with director Paul Sng, and </b><b>Patch It Up! A punk-inspired, clothes customisation workshop (tickets booked separately for workshop)</b><b>.</b></div><div><br></div><div>Cinetopia DOC presents <i>Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché</i> as part of <a href="https://cinetopia.co.uk/transmission">Transmission: Youth Across Generations</a>, a multi-event programme exploring how youth culture has shaped identity, belonging and collective memory in Britain from the 1980s to the present.</div><div><br></div><div>As the first woman of colour in the UK to front a successful rock band - X-Ray Spex - Poly Styrene was a blazing voice of rebellion in the chaos and upheaval of 1970s Britain - singing about identity, consumerism, postmodernism, and everything she saw unfolding with a rare prescience and a female perspective.</div><div><br></div><div>As an Anglo-Somali punk musician, Poly Styrene was also a big influence on the riot grrrl and Afropunk movements, inspiring later artists such as Bikini Kill, Sleater-Kinney and Neneh Cherry.</div><div><br></div><div>Poly was survived by a daughter, Celeste Bell, after her passing in 2011 to cancer, with Celeste becoming the guardian of her mother’s legacy but also her trauma, having grown up in the shadow of Poly’s mental illness and the racism and misogyny that followed her throughout life, and caused a rift in their relationship.</div><div><br></div><div><i>Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché</i> brings together unseen archive material and excerpts from Poly’s personal diaries narrated by Oscar-nominee Ruth Negga. We follow Celeste as she opens her mother's artistic archive for the first time, beginning a journey across time, memory, and continents to better understand Poly the icon and Poly, her mother.</div><div><br></div><div><b>In addition to archive footage of Poly herself, <i>Poly Styrene: I Am A Cliché</i> features appearances and memories from:</b></div><div><br></div><div>Thurston Moore - Sonic Youth</div><div>Kathleen Hanna - Bikini Kill/Le Tigre</div><div>Vivienne Westwood - Fashion designer</div><div>Neneh Cherry - Singer/songwriter</div><div>Don Letts - Friend and DJ/filmmaker</div><div>Bruno Wizard - Friend and musician</div><div>Youth - Friend and musician/producer</div><div><br></div><div>In addition to the screening, inspired by Poly, Cinetopia will be hosting <b><a href="https://www.filmhouse.org.uk/movie/patch-it-up-a-punk-inspired-clothes-customisation-workshop">Patch It Up! A punk-inspired, clothes customisation workshop</a></b> - bring along an item of clothing like a denim jacket or t-shirt and turn it into a unique statement piece with studs, fabric paint, pins, patches and more. (This activity must be booked separately from the film screening, please visit the link above to do so).</div><div><br></div><div><i>This screening is part of <a href="https://www.filmhouse.org.uk/rip-it-up-find-your-own-way">Rip It Up</a>, supported by Film Hub Scotland as part of the BFI Film Audience Network (FAN), made possible by the National Lottery.</i></div><div><i><br></i></div><div><i><div>About Cinetopia DOC:</div><div><br></div><div><a href="https://www.filmhouse.org.uk/cinetopiadoc">Cinetopia:DOC</a> is a monthly club bringing audiences together around exceptional documentary films alongside filmmaker Q&As or conversations, followed by continued discussion and networking in the Filmhouse Bar. Cinetopia:DOC is supported by Film Hub Scotland, part of the BFI's Film Audience Network, and funded by Screen Scotland and National Lottery funding from the BFI and the Scottish Documentary Institute and produced by Cinetopia, a hub of activity around filmgoing and filmmaking based in Edinburgh.</div></i></div>DocumentaryPT1H36M12A2026-09-30GBenPoly Styrene
Celeste Bell
Ruth Negga
Paul Sng
Celeste Bell
Paul Sng
Celeste Bell
Zoë Howe
Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché + Q&A"Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché + Q&A"Showtimes
September 30, 8:20 pm
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