29.10.24, 20:30, Young Soul Rebels (1991)

Isaac Julien co-founded the Sankofa Film and Video Collective in 1983, one of many 1980s initiatives that developed an independent ecosystem for Black British cinema at a time of great social unrest. In his own second feature film Young Soul Rebels, Julien paints an intense picture of late-1970s London on the verge of the AIDS epidemic. Young people set themselves against the stifling norm in subcultures (punks, skinheads, soulboys). A queer love story buds just days before Queen Elizabeth's silver jubilee celebrations.

The hedonistic world of DJ pirates Chris (Valentine Nonyela) and Caz (Mo Sesay) is disrupted when a close friend is murdered while cruising in a local park. The black community suspects the National Front, but the police hold a different theory. Young Soul Rebels won awards at the Cannes Film Festival and still exudes an infectious youthful enthusiasm, helped by atmospheric cinematic photography and seventies soundtrack by The Blackbyrds, Funkadelic and The O'Jays, among others.

This film will be introduced by film scholar Alexander De Man.