‘Poly Styrene: I am Cliché’: A Journey Through Styrene Archives

Poly Styrene’s new film documentary I am a Cliché, released on February 2, tells the story of the X-Ray Spex frontwoman, the first woman of color in the U.K. to front a successful rock band.

The death of punk icon and X-Ray Spex frontwoman Poly Styrene sends her daughter on a journey across the world and through her mother’s archives to reconcile their fraught relationship in this new documentary, featuring Oscar nominee Ruth Negga as the voice of Poly Styrene. 

When Celeste Bell, Styrene’s daughter, finally received the stacks of boxes from her mother’s former manager, she was able to make up her archive. “It was mostly my mother’s visual artwork and poems and diary entries,” Bell told Vogue. “But really that archive was the genesis of everything.” 

“I didn’t realize how significant it was until I started to actually organize it and put everything together and approach it from a historical perspective,” says Bell referring to the documentary. “The book came first, but the film made sense because there was just so much rich visual material.” 

The title of the film was taken from one of her song titles that mixed self-aware humor and cultural critique. “My mum believed she was psychic,” says Bell in a video interview. “You can see that in her lyrics. She had this uncanny ability to predict what was going to happen.” 

Styrene died from cancer in 2011 at the age of 53. A decade later, the story of her life has been published in a book—Dayglo!: The Poly Styrene Story—a book co-written by Styrene’s daughter Celeste Bell and music writer Zoe Howe. This oral biography draws from archival interviews with Styrene augmented by recent reminisces from X-Ray Spex’s Paul Dean and Lora Logic and others. 

The film is available to watch online in different platforms that you can visit here.

Photos Courtesy of Instagram