I write you today from a hectic and well-stocked home\u2014provisions secured, kiddos going wild, and streets still untouched. And yet, Hittsville is open. Intrepid souls in search of caffeine and culture will be rewarded for their bravery today, as\u00a0the show must go on!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today only, we\u2014and cinemas across the continent\u2014are running shows of\u00a0Poly Styrene: I am a Clich\u00e9<\/a>. Celeste Bell, the daughter of Black punk-rock-icon Poly Styrene, crafts (alongside co-director Paul Sng) an incredibly vulnerable piece of work from a woman seeking to understand her mother. Set on a backdrop swinging from music to mental illness, from an overclocked industry to an England overflowing with vitriolic misogyny and racism, the film is ultimately about generational trauma, discovery, and forgiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tomorrow, as the storm abates, we offer the final entry in our\u00a0Passport: Todo Sobre Almod\u00f3var<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>series,\u00a0All About my Mother<\/a>,\u00a0for two shows on 35mm. Pedro Almod\u00f3var\u2019s exuberant polychromatic 1999 melodrama follows a woman through a rapid transfer of social and familial feminine roles. Beginning with the death of her only son, Manuela quits her job as a nurse in Madrid to return to Barcelona in search of the boy\u2019s father. There she rediscovers her past life\u2014in both the theatre and on the street\u2014as well as new roles with new women. The film is a complicated cocktail of humor, heartrending sadness, and liberation that wrestles with the complexities of faith, queerness, and existence.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ragtagcinema.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/08_PSIAAC_Credit_Kino-Library-edited-1.jpg\")