Young Soul Rebels Is Gay
(Welcome to Movies Are Gay, a Pride Month series where we explore the intentional [or accidental] ways LGBTQIA+ themes, characters, and creatives have shaped cinema.)
Isaac Julien might not be a household name to even the most vocally self-professed cinephiles, but he certainly should be. As an installation artist and one of the founders of the Sankofa Film and Video Collective, Julien is a pillar of Black cinema history. His breakthrough feature is the docu-drama "Looking for Langston," which focused on Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance. But it was in 1991 that Julien debuted the masterful, Semaine de la Critique prize for Best Film at the Cannes Film Festival-winning "Young Soul Rebels" which helped bring him to a wider audience.
Set during the 1977's Silver Jubilee for Queen Elizabeth, "Young Soul Rebels" is a beautiful, poetic, at times devastating coming-of-age romantic dramedy, and also a thriller about a horrific homophobic hate crime. The story focuses on pirate radio disc jockeys named Chris (Valentine Nonyela) and Caz (Mo Sesay), who are trying to pick up the pieces of their lives after their friend is murdered in a park while he was out cruising. Caz throws himself into their DJ work to try and distract himself, much to Chris' chagrin. This tension forces a wedge in their friendship, and Chris attempts to fill the void with a white punk named Billibud (Jason Durr) while Caz begins dating a woman at the radio station (Sophie Okonedo) named Tracy.
It's a criminally underseen queer film often left off essential LGBTQIA+ cinema lists with an untouchably good soundtrack boasting tunes by Parliament, X-Ray Spex, The O'Jays, and The Blackbyrds.
Identity intersections done right
Chris and Caz are both Black and queer, but Chris' bisexuality compared to Caz's homosexuality and mixed-race background means the two navigate the world differently, and Julien brilliantly showcases the importance of intersectionality. Mainstream LGBTQIA+ films often act as if there's "one" queer experience when that couldn't be further from the truth. In fact, many film critics at the time of the film's release (including Roger Ebert) mistakenly believed Chris was a straight character because of his relationship with Tracy, a troubling sign of the bi-erasure that happens when bisexual people end up in relationships with someone of a differing gender identity.
The film is also a bold examination of the way young working-class counter-culture groups like skinheads (not the nazi kind), punks, soulboys, and rastas fought for joy and the potential for a better future in the face of a conservative society with vastly different approaches. Some have criticized the film for trying to tackle too many important topics at once, but that's what makes "Young Soul Rebels" so important. As far as I'm concerned, if a viewer thinks these characters are dealing with too much, that should be a call to look inward and appreciate not having a reason to relate.
Sadly, "Young Soul Rebels" is a difficult film to track down in the US, but there are physical releases available for purchase online. DVDs run between $17-$30, but the British Film Institute recently remastered the film for a new Blu-ray release through Atomic Movie Store. The title is currently available for pre-order for Region B, so make sure if you're in the States you've got a region-free player before you purchase.