Bending the Note: the Story of Siren

Directed by Deborah Espect

A documentary about the Brighton-based punk, lesbian, and political activist band Siren, with members now in their 60s and 70s. Siren is an all-women lesbian band and theatre company formed in 1979 at the height of Thatcher’s Britain. They aimed their artistic expression at the twin enemies of the day – Margaret Thatcher’s conservatism and the sexist assumptions that were built deep into the social infrastructure. Influenced by Punk and New Wave music, they forged their own style of songs that had at its core a critique of life under the cloud of the reactionary conservatism of the 1980s in Britain. Siren re-formed as a band in 2014 and continues to compose and perform.