Direction: Celeste Bell, Paul Sng
Country: USA
This revelatory documentary about the Londoner punk icon Poly Styrene, the first woman of color to lead a successful rock band in the UK and a strong influence on the riot grrrl and afropunk movements of the late 1970s, was co-directed by her daughter, Celeste Bell, and Paul Sng. With the Ethiopian-Irish actress Ruth Negga narrating excerpts of Poly’s personal diaries, the film also counts on Bell’s emotionally charged words, archival footage, and a few interviews with members of her one-studio-album band, X-Ray Spex (Paul Dean and Lora Logic) and family.
Styrene, who was born to a Somalian father and a British mother, had a difficult time dealing with identity. She was a staunch defendant of women liberation and became a counter-culture figure who also got exposure as an alternative fashion designer. Misdiagnosed with schizophrenia and told she would never work again, Poly ended up in a psychiatric ward before joining the Hare Krishna movement and set her own solo career. She had been negatively affected by the superficial lifestyle of New York and heavy drug consumption while living there.
According to Bell, she wasn’t always a good mother, but the film, besides serving the purpose of telling the musician’s story while providing some insight into the British social climate at the time, is elevated by a more affirmative mother-daughter relationship. The only quibble here is the repetition of the footage, but the film flows well, avoiding panegyric artificialities.
