Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten

Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten (2007) is a music documentary you can watch online on iFILM. Director Julien Temple had known Strummer personally for years and uses that closeness to build something more than a fan tribute — archive footage, campfire conversation segments, and testimony from Bono, Jim Jarmusch, Flea, Anthony Kiedis, Steve Buscemi, Matt Dillon, and John Cusack.

John Graham Mellor was born in 1952 in Ankara to a British diplomat, drifted through art school in London, and became Joe Strummer before The Clash released their debut in 1977. Nine years of punk cut with reggae and politics that felt earned rather than performed. He died in December 2002 from an undetected heart condition. Temple released the film four years later, drawing on recordings and conversations from their friendship — less an encyclopedia of the band, more a portrait of a man who believed the future was always still being written. Stream Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten (2007) online on iFILM.