Leslie Ash and Phil Daniels (centre and centre right) in Quadrophenia. Photograph: The Who Films/Allstar View image in fullscreen Leslie Ash and Phil Daniels (centre and centre right) in Quadrophenia. Photograph: The Who Films/Allstar Film Tearing up the screen: BFI’s Rip It Up season rebels against tired teen stereotypes Young people have chosen this six-month season, and though rebel classics such as Quadrophenia and If … are here, the picks show youth culture in flux
Prefer the Guardian on Google S eventy-five years ago, the Festival of Britain offered a vision of a modern, forward-looking nation emerging from the austerity of the second world war. It also coincided with the emergence of a new cultural figure in the US: the teenager. For the first time, young people were beginning to be recognised as a distinct social group with their own tastes, fashions, anxieties and aspirations.
View image in fullscreen Defying conformity … a 1963 poster for Billy Liar. Photograph: Ronald Grant That evolution forms the basis of Rip It Up, a new nationwide season from the BFI Film Audience Network running from May to October, exploring how British film and television have captured youth culture across seven decades. Bringing together screenings, archive material, talks, live events and youth-led programming, the season traces a journey from postwar rebellion and working-class aspiration to contemporary questions of identity, belonging and self-expression.
For Timon Singh, producer at the BFI Film Audience Network, the season’s timing is significant. Alongside the Southbank Centre’s celebrations marking the 75th anniversary of the Festival of Britain, Rip It Up offers an opportunity to look at how successive generations have defined themselves.
“What we thought we’d do with Rip It Up was celebrate how UK youth culture has changed over those 75 years,” he says. “The changing face of rebellion, culture, expression, the joy, the heartbreak, everything that goes into being young.”
View image in fullscreen Frustration and creativity … Young Soul Rebels. Photograph: Courtesy BFI The films selected for the season chart those shifts. John Schlesinger’s Billy Liar, receiving a new 4K restoration, captures a young man straining against the conformity of postwar Britain. Quadrophenia immortalises the tribal rivalries of mods and rockers. Babylon channels the frustrations and creativity of Black British youth through reggae sound-system culture, while Human Traffic and Young Soul Rebels document the liberating possibilities of nightlife and music scenes.
Yet one of the season’s strengths is its refusal to treat youth culture simply as a nostalgic procession of famous subcultures.
Singh was keen that young people themselves should help shape the programme. At BFI Southbank, programmers aged between 19 and 29 have developed a takeover event exploring subjects ranging from trans youth culture and Black British fashion to female fandom, YouTube and the emergence of digital identities.
View image in fullscreen ‘There’s so much nuance’ … Parminder Nagra and Keira Knightley in Bend It Like Beckham. Photograph: BSkyB/Sportsphoto/Allstar “I felt strongly that if you’re doing something on UK youth culture, you get young programmers involved,” Singh says.
The conversations that emerged revealed a different landscape from the neatly defined youth movements of previous decades. Young participants wanted to engage with environmental activism, LGBTQ+ experiences and…