Young Soul Rebels

It’s London in 1977, in the days leading up to Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee celebrations. Soul boys Chris (Valentine Nonyela) and Caz (Mo Sesay) run a makeshift pirate radio station, “Soul Patrol”, from an East End garage, when not running the gauntlet of the neighbourhood bovver boys. Their lives are upturned when a close friend is murdered while cruising in the local park.

This riveting, Cannes Critics’ Week prize-winning, coming-of-age whodunnit was the debut feature from now-knighted Black British installation artist, filmmaker, and UCSC Distinguished Professor of the Arts, Isaac Julien, who said at the time of its release that “we were interested in 1977 as the moment in Black British culture when you witnessed Black style becoming a social force”. Already a period piece when made, it remains, moreover, a powerful landmark moment in Black British queer cinema, alongside Julien’s earlier featurette Looking for Langston. And of course, the soundtrack is fantastic, and features Funkadelic, X-Ray Spex, Parliament, Sylvester and many more.