REBEL TIME: YOUNG SOUL REBELS

Directed by Isaac Julien

1991 / 105min

“Isaac Julien’s YOUNG SOUL REBELS is an energetic trip into 1970s Britain and its counterculture groups. Disc Jockeys Caz and Chris run their own underground radio show, blasting northern soul music across the airways. During a broadcast, their friend TJ is killed while cruising in a park. While Caz tries to process the death, Chris comes across a cassette tape from that night which recorded TJ’s last moments. The two are thrown on separate paths as they try to solve their friend’s death and get funk music on air. Julien expertly demonstrates the tension between different social, economic, and racial groups in this part-vibrant coming-of-age, part-crime-solving thriller film. As we’re confronted with the realities of existing within society’s margins, we’re reminded of the solace that comes from being surrounded by good friends and even better music.” –Ollie Coombs, TIFF “From the moment Parliament’s ‘P-Funk Wants to Get Funked Up’ erupts over the opening credits of YOUNG SOUL REBELS – only to be rudely interrupted by Poly Styrene wailing out, ‘Identity is the crisis, can’t you see’ – we know that we’re in for a wild ride. The changes keep coming as an interracial sex act in the bushes turns into a murder, setting off a police investigation and waves of controversy in London’s black community. The year is 1977, and while some people are busy getting ready to celebrate Queen Elizabeth’s Silver Jubilee, others have more important things on their minds. Punks and Teds, National Front and Natty Dreads are fighting in the streets, and the authorities seem more interested in harassing the victim’s friends than in solving the crime. Meanwhile, black DJs Caz and Chris dream of playing music so funky that ‘even the white boys will shake a leg.’ But when Caz meets a cute white punk named Billibud, it’s shagging he wants, not shaking. As the romance and the manhunt both heat up, Chris finds he is a suspect in the murder, and YOUNG SOUL REBELS becomes a riveting look at the forces of race, class and sex that reshaped the U.K. just before the Thatcher years.” –FRAMELINE