Young Soul Rebels
Isaac Julien. 1991
A key figure in the film and video workshop movement of the early 1980s, Isaac Julien is now a leading international film and video artist, producing work for cinema, television and art galleries.
He was born in London's East End on 21 February 1960, one of five children of parents who migrated to Britain from St Lucia.
In his first narrative feature film, Young Soul Rebels director Isaac Julien aimed to champion "black independent cinema which deals with questions of sexuality, gender and national identity".
Youth culture meets identity politics in this part-thriller, part-gay love story set in London in 1977, days before the Queen's Silver Jubilee celebrations. The hedonistic world of pirate DJs Chris and Caz is shattered when a close friend is killed while cruising in the local park. The black community suspect the National Front, but the police pull Chris in as a suspect.
This beautifully crafted period piece, a bold and stylish debut feature from Isaac Julien, paints a convincing picture of late-'70s London. The city is a carefully mapped out social landscape, open to all but offering safety to none, as we are taken to a Dalston barber, east London council estates festooned with Union Jacks, West End offices, soul clubs and city parks.
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