Buenos Aires Herald 
A special program of British rock documentaries will be in focus at the 2025 Buenos Aires Independent Film Festival, which kicks off next Tuesday.
Supported by the British Council, the Bafici sidebar called Britannia B Side: We Will Rock You will feature nine films that focus on British pop and rock artists and the UK music scene.
“From Bowie playing at Glastonbury and captured by Julian Temple to the history of The Slits (…), from the great Poly Styrene to Britpop, from The Jesus and Mary Chain to Gorillaz, and always abiding by our Saint Vivienne Westwood. With such a selection of documentaries and concerts, there’s no doubt about it: we will definitely rock you,” wrote Bafici programmer Juan Manuel Dominguez in the section’s presentation.
The program also includes a live conference by author and visual artist Zoë Howe entitled British School of Rock, where the co-scriptwriter of Poly Styrene: I am a Cliche who also collaborated in Bill Badgley’s Here to Be Heard: The Story of The Slits, will present a genealogy of British rock, including a series of special music video excerpts. The conference is scheduled for Friday, April 11 at 6 p.m. in the Alcón Hall of the San Martín Theater, on Av. Corrientes 1530.
The Buenos Aires Independent Film Festival will run April 1-13 in venues across Buenos Aires. Tickets and program information are available on https://bafici.org/
Britannia B Side: We Will Rock You films:
Glastonbury
2006
Director: Julien Temple. 138 minutes.
Glastonbury is the world’s most famous, prestigious, and longest-running music festival, driven by an incredible musical diversity. This film captures its spirit and characters, reflecting global changes through the decades.
Gorillaz: Reject False Icons
2019
Director: Denholm Hewlett. 96 minutes.
The life of the band Gorillaz and its collaborators over the three vital years in which they developed critically acclaimed albums Humanz and The Now Now, as well as undertaking their most ambitious world tour to date.
Here to Be Heard: The Story of The Slits
2017
Director: Bill Badgley. 86 minutes.
All-girl punk band The Slits formed in London in 1976 and produced some of the most influential and innovative music of the punk movement. Through interviews and archive footage, the film tells their story, from their formation to the end.
Director: Julien Temple. 104 minutes.
This is the story of Dr. Feelgood, a rock’n’roll band from Canvey Island that revolutionized the genre in the 1970s with their chart-topping success and their impact on Europe and America.
Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché
2021
Director: Celeste Bell, Paul Sng. 96 minutes.
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.
Supersonic
2016
Director: Mat Whitecross. 122 minutes.
A documentary about legendary British band Oasis and brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher, two young men from Manchester with larger-than-life personalities who managed to turn their band into the biggest on the planet in the 1990s.
Director: Grant McPhee. 107 minutes.
The story of Scotland’s independent music scene during the 1980s and 1990s, with iconic bands such as The Jesus and Mary Chain, Pastels, Vaselines, Shop Assistants, BMX Bandits, Teenage Fanclub and Soup Dragons.
The Beat Is the Law — Fanfare for the Common People
2011
Director: Eve Wood. 90 minutes.
A documentary that brings together original interviews, performances, footage and videos to tell the story of Pulp and their contemporaries’ journey from the darkest industrial depths of Steel City to the pinnacle of pop.
Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist
2018
Director: Lorna Tucker. 78 minutes.
From young punk activist in the 1970s to owner of a fashion empire on a par with Gucci and Dior, the temperamental Vivienne Westwood had a fascinating journey. Lorna Tucker’s documentary traces the life of this global fashion icon with style.
*Updated on Mar 31 to correct Zoë Howe’s participation in two films
