Polly Styrene – Sponsored by Clocktower Records Saturday 27th April – Bridport Arts Center
Poly Styrene was the first woman of colour 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 everything she saw unfolding in late 1970s Britain, with a rare prescience. Winner of two independent film awards including Best Documentary and featuring unseen archive material, the film is narrated by Oscar nominee Ruth Negga, and 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.
Join us after the screening as we talk to the films director, Paul Sng, British Chinese documentary maker who grew up on a South London housing estate and came to filmmaking late and winning a 2022 BAFTA Breakthrough for Poly Styrene: I am a Cliché. You can also catch Paul at the screening of his most recent documentary film ‘Tish’ showing earlier in the day at 5pm.
‘Paul is a British Chinese documentary maker who grew up on a South London housing estate and came to filmmaking late when he crowdfunded to follow the band Sleaford Mods in the run up to the 2015 election to make a film that was “part music documentary, part state of the nation.” Winning a 2022 BAFTA Breakthrough for Poly Styrene: I am a Cliché he said “I think I had what Orson Welles described as ‘the confidence of ignorance’”.
