To mark the release of documentary Wake Up Punk, NME can share an exclusive clip from the film – you can check it out above.
Directed by Nigel Askew, the documentary charts the decline of punk through interviews with the fashion designer and her two sons Ben Westwood and Joe Corré.
As featured at the end of the film, Corré, who is the son of Westwood and the former Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren, publicly burned an estimated £5million worth of punk memorabilia in 2016 to protest the genre’s commodification.
The protest, which drew criticism at the time, coincided with the 40th anniversary of the UK release of Sex Pistols track ‘Anarchy In The UK’.
A synopsis for Wake Up Punk reads: “With a fusion of documentary and magical realism, the film captures the intimate moments between Vivienne and her two sons Ben and Joe as they candidly discuss their own relationship with Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren and stories from the punk era.”
In the exclusive clip, Ben Westwood, the son of Vivienne and Derek Westwood, discusses his relationship with his mother during his school days at the height of punk.
“You never came to my school parents meetings at all,” Westwood said. “You didn’t offer and I definitely didn’t want you to come either.”
Speaking at a premiere screening of Wake Up Punk last night (May 5) in London, Vivienne Westwood said the film was designed to bring attention to climate change.
“I think [the burning of the memorabilia] was totally unimportant and so does Joe [Corré], it’s neither here nor there,” Westwood said. “He wanted to make a film about nobody understanding what’s going on with in the world when we’re all going to die from climate change. That’s what he wanted to make a film about.”
‘Wake Up Punk’ is in select cinemas now. It will be released on demand from May 9
