Rip It Up Season at Studio 74
Published August 21, 2026
YOUTH. MUSIC. CULTURE.
The BFI FAN UK-wide season, Rip It Up, explores and celebrates the changing face of youth rebellion, culture and expression – from joy to heartbreak – on screen at Studio 74.
We've already been wowed by urban coming-of-age film this August. Now the season continues with three bona fide classics and one locally made documentary.
From the pirate radio DJs of late-70s London, to the rave-fuelled chaos of 90s Cardiff and Edinburgh, to the legendary Warehouse in Plymouth, these films capture moments when music became more than a soundtrack — it became a way of life.
Whether you were there or you're discovering it for the first time, turn it up and experience these defining moments of British youth culture on the big screen.
Human Traffic & W: A Return to Oz (15)
Sat 26 Sep | 8pm
The weekend has landed. All that exists now is clubs, drugs, pubs and parties…
To celebrate youth culture’s involvement in the British rave scene, we have married two very iconic films that chronicle this euphoria and escapist counterculture through a nostalgic lens.
Human Traffic follows one wild weekend in the lives of five friends in Cardiff who dive headlong into the drug-fuelled counterculture of the British rave scene, escaping from boring 9-5 jobs, bad relationships, and dysfunctional families.
Human Traffic will be preceded by a short, locally made film, W: A Return to Oz. Witness the rise and fall of The Warehouse, a rave venue from Plymouth and times gone by now, reduced to a derelict shell. An amateur filmmaker-explorer finds the building empty in an empty derelict state, long after the prosperous life and energy it endured through the 90s. The director will be hosting a live Q&A after the screening.
Young Soul Rebels (15)
Sat 10 Oct | 8pm
Youth culture and identity define this part-thriller, part-gay love story, part hang-out movie set in the simmeringly tense days before the Queen’s Silver Jubilee celebrations. Pirate radio DJs (and fashion icons) Chris and Caz spend their nights spinning discs at the local underground club that offers a home to anyone who feels different. Chris’ days are spent trying to get a legitimate radio show that celebrates funk and soul, while Chaz’s world is shattered after learning that his friend TJ was murdered while cruising in the park. The black community suspects the National Front are behind the killing, but the police have other ideas…
Trainspotting (18)
Sat 17 Oct | 8pm
Smart, funny, sickly and sometimes just plain unconscious, Mark Renton is a hero for our times. Set in the underbelly of Edinburgh, Trainspotting is the story of Mark and his so-called friends: Sick Boy, Spud, Tommy and Diana (who, thanks to an era-defining release campaign, were iconic before we even met them on screen) – a bunch of losers, liars, psychos, thieves and junkies.
Saturday Night Headliners
Alongside Rip It Up, Studio 74 is also screening three acclaimed music films celebrating the artists who defined British youth culture across four decades: Madness, Pulp and Oasis.
Every Saturday during Rip It Up, discover the music that powered Britain's youth cultures. From the ska revival of Madness to Britpop icons Pulp and Oasis, these documentaries provide the perfect accompaniment to our screenings of Human Traffic, Young Soul Rebels and Trainspotting.
