Pioneers of Black British Cinema: Young Soul Rebels

British video artist and filmmaker Isaac Julien (*1960) is considered a leading voice of New Queer Cinema. In YOUNG SOUL REBELS, he combines elements of crime thriller, coming-of-age drama, and romance, accompanied by a lively soundtrack by Funkadelic, Junior Murvin, Parliament, and X-Ray Spex. In 1977, soul boys Caz (Mo Sesay) and Chris (Valentine Nonyela) run a local pirate radio station in the East London district of Dalston. When their friend TJ is killed while cruising in a local park, they try to solve the murder. As the city prepares for the Queen's Silver Jubilee celebrations, social tensions between skinheads, punks, the police, and the two friends threaten to escalate. The film was funded by the BFI and produced by Nadine Marsh-Edwards, co-founder of the Sankofa Workshop.

Before the film there is a video introduction by Anupma Shanker, Film Curator & Archives Researcher