Sunday 3 May
12:00-18:00 BFI Southbank

Tying into Southbank Centre’s pop culture spectacular You Are Here, we invite you to embrace your hedonistic impulses, rage against the machine and throw yourself headfirst into a takeover led by the youth of today.

All programmes are conceived, curated and hosted by young people aged 19 to 29, drawing from the BFI National Archive, personal collections and memories, conversations amongst peers and the online ecosystem.

Tickets provide access to the full day’s programming, all sessions are first come first served. The final event schedule will be announced in April.

Tickets £4

See also our screening of Bend It Like Beckham, selected as the winner of our 25 and Under vote, and which will screen in NFT1 following the end of the Rip It Up takeover.

 

Programme

When Popping and Locking Exploded on Our Screens

12:00-12:45, NFT3

Dance has always played a role in cinema, reflecting the culture and trends of each decade. In the 2000s, hip hop culture became increasingly mainstream, bringing a fresh and global energy to the big screen. Popping, locking and breaking quickly became iconic, widely loved and practised. Join Naz Hamdi to explore how street dance has appeared in film, its popularity and its resonance with youth culture today.

Curated by Naz Hamdi

Chronically Online: A Personal History of the UK Internet

12:05-13:05, NFT2

We all have that one YouTube video we’re obsessed with. Or that one vine that we think about more than most movies.

Chronically Online: A Personal History of the UK Internet is the Creative Nonfiction Film Weekend's one-night-only programme of digital delights on the big screen, showcasing the stories Britain tells about itself through the internet. Touring the UK with guest curators, the programme is never the same twice — as unpredictable as a social media scroll. From vlogs to memes to uncategorisable curiosities, these videos might not have initially been intended as ‘cinema’, but what is cinema if not images and narratives that are so iconic that they stick in our heads?

Chronically Online is presented in partnership with the BFI National Archive’s Our Screen Heritage Project, supported by the BFI Screen Heritage Fund, awarding National Lottery funding.

Curated and hosted by Orla Smith and Kimia Ipakchi, in conversation with Kitty Robertson (BFI National Archive)

The Spaces We Make

12:15-13:15, NFT4

The Spaces We Make explores football as more than a game, but a cultural space shaped by identity, community, and creativity. Through a curated programme of short films, the session highlights stories at the intersection of sport and lived experience. A guided conversation will bring together voices across football and the creative industries to reflect on storytelling, access, and the spaces we build for ourselves and others. The session will close with an audience Q&A.

Curated and hosted by Georgia J Summers, in conversation with filmmaker William Goldsborough and Thema Archer, founder of InterMelanin FC

No Rude Boys, No Rave: The Roots and Evolution of British Dance Culture

13:05-13:55, NFT3

British rave culture didn't come out of nowhere; before the rave, there were sound systems, blues dances and Rude Boys. This viewing and conversation looks at Jamaican youth subculture, specifically Rude Boys, whose migration to Britain heavily influenced British youth through style, music and attitude, reshaping British nightlife forever through the musical evolution of Ska and Dub to Jungle and DnB. We'll be discussing how culture is adopted, repackaged, and pulled away from its original purpose, also taking time to recognise the lineage as Black people continue to build and keep the joy of raving alive today.

Curated and hosted by Ronni Michaela Pierre (RMP), in conversation with DJXHNWAV, writer Lloyd Bradley and fat-lïp

Video Hud: Have You Seen Your Culture Baby, Standing in the Shadows?

13:30-14:30, NFT2

Bringing together new film Glasbren with excerpts from Emyr Ankst’s Saunders Lewis vs Andy Warhol, this exploration of youth-led creativity in Wales traces a lineage from the 1990s Welsh-language indie movement to a new wave of grassroots creativity emerging today. Grounded in voices from the contemporary Sîn Roc Gymraeg, we'll be celebrating raw, self-made cultures forged outside of major hubs and traditional structures.

Curated by Gwenno Llwyd Till, Cian Clinc, Yannick Hammer and Cell-b
Hosted by Gwenno Llwyd Till and Cian Clinc, in conversation with actor Rhys Ifans

Nothing But Time: YouTube's DIY Filmmakers

13:45-14:45, NFT4

British YouTube in the 2010's became synonymous with DIY spirit. With no budget, but plenty of time, these filmmakers pioneered new genres and styles. Join us for a screening of the era's quintessential videos. Followed by a discussion exploring the value of this Online Moving Image, now being preserved in the BFI archives.

Curated and hosted by Leonor Silva, in conversation with Molly Miles, film programmer and popcorn salesman, and Jude Leese, actor and DIY cinema enthusiast

Transfiction: Trans Youth Culture and the Moving Image

14:15-15:00, NFT3

The experiences of trans youth have rarely been given an authentic depiction on-screen; transgender artists are often marginalised, and trans youth have been denied a cultural voice. Yet, young trans people have found ways to see our stories in all sorts of film and television. This presentation aims to dissect the evolving relationship between trans youth culture and the moving image, establishing a 'trans film map' of sorts, and interrogating what place cinema holds in the lives of young transgender people in the UK.

Curated by Katy Hanson

Immortalised in 360p: Grime on DVD

15:20-16:20, NFT3

The emergence of ‘DIY DVDs’ like Risky Roadz, Practice Hours and Lord of the Decks pierced the veil of the burgeoning grime scene. These underground releases highlighted the early talent of artists such as Skepta, Kano, D Double E and many more. Over two decades on, we’re screening a handful of the raw, unfiltered moments captured on those discs. A panel will reflect on the makers’ prescience and the resonance of the culture they documented.

Curated by Luke Ainger, Milo Holmes, and Sara Ismail
Hosted by Huck magazine’s Isaac Muk, in conversation with Roony ‘Rsky’ Keefe and Troy ‘A Plus’ Miller

From Beatlemania to Directioners: Female Fandom Through the Years

16:40-17:50, NFT4

 

Where would British music be without its fans? From Beatlemania to Directioners is all about the teenage girls behind the music, from the 1960s up to present day. This 50-minute archive programme explores the importance of female fandom and how it has been perceived, highlighting the misogyny of their reception.

Curated and hosted by Daisy Hutchings, in conversation with writer Hannah Ewens and historian Lucy Robinson

let them cook!

15:10-16:20, NFT4

let them cook! is a shorts programme exploring the endless stretches of time that are interwoven with youth in Britain. Waiting at bus stops. The chip shop at 10pm. Scrolling on your phone in a town where the youth club closed years ago.

This programme brings together UK-centred films that trace how boredom has been experienced and redefined over time. In a society where productivity is the ultimate flex and time has become commodified, let them cook! counters this narrative. It recognises boredom as the starting point for creativity and community, and highlights the importance of third spaces in facilitating young people to flourish.

Curated by SplicD Cinema: Afra Nuarey, Marta Cappozzo and Mariana Enriquez Denton Bustinza
In conversation with Blair Davis, James Kaguima and Em Li

Grown Up Online: The Dawn of the Digital Teen

14:55-15:40, NFT2

Teen-hood has always been associated with subcultures, born from dancefloors, clubs, record shops, and community. But what happens when those dancefloors are digital?

During the 2000s and 2010s, the internet became a place for young people to gather, share, discover, laugh, cry, create, rage, and, most importantly, learn how to be ‘a teen’. In this illustrated panel discussion, we’ll explore how the teen went digital and what this means for a digital future; surfing through memes, short-form content, and online culture to ask how this landscape shaped the 21st Century teen, and how the teen helped shape it.

Curated and hosted by Gabriel Leavey, in conversation with model and musician Charlie Barker, writer Sihaam Naik and Jordan Rodrigues, creative lead at Doc Martens

Dating, a Youth Rebellion

16:00-17:30, NFT2

In today’s algorithm infested landscape, it’s difficult to imagine dating as anything other than desire packaged into swipes and likes. But long before apps, young people have been pushing against the limits placed on who they could love, how they could meet, and what types of relationships were acceptable. Through a selection of archival and contemporary short films, this screening will trace how different generations of youth have exercised romantic and sexual autonomy as a form of personal resistance.

Curated and hosted by Nico Hughes, in conversation with writer Brit Dawson

Rebels in Style: A 75-Year Journey of Black British Fashion & Film

16:50-17:50, NFT3

Rebels in Style is an immersive, film-led exploration of Black British youth culture across generations. Blending archival footage, music videos and live model interventions, each era is brought into the present, creating a cinematic dialogue between past and contemporary fashion.

Directed and Produced by: Ayiesha Sankoh
Fashion Creative Director: Aerin Agyei
Movement Direction/Assistant: Idriss Sankoh

The Rooms We Left Behind

All day installation, 12:00-17:00

Our childhood bedrooms hold memories - the place we grew into ourselves, spent time with friends and sought comfort. Hosted in a fully immersive bedroom recreation, this shorts programme explores the nostalgia of the bedrooms of the 2010s and what it was like to be a British teenager from the Asian communities of Southall to the subgenre techno scenes that emerged across the North of England. Alongside the screenings, audiences can create their own polaroid keychains to take away at our activities bar.

Curated by Sahar Hamidollah and Olgalissia Riley

Video Hud: Swap Shop

All day installation featuring short films, 12:00-17:00

The Video Hud Swap Shop is a curated, drop-in space exploring Welsh music culture through memory, material, and making. Centred on 1990s Welsh-language indie and the legacy of DIY culture, it brings together curated archival display, a participatory memory archive, and a creative response swap shop. Visitors can browse authentic Welsh merchandise, zines, CDs, and ephemera from key bands and cultural moments of the era, and are invited to contribute stories and memories, building a living archive of lived experience. Dal Dy Dir!

Curated by Gwenno Llwyd Till, Cian Clinc, Yannick Hammer and Cell-b

Rebel Badges: An Afternoon of Workshops, Archival Collections and Talks

All day workshop featuring pop up talks and films, Blue Room

Badges have long been worn by queer youth to signal identity, solidarity and resistance. Join us for a drop-in badge making workshop, alongside archival badge collections, relaxed screenings of queer shorts from the BFI National Archive and guest speakers - offering insight into queer youth culture in Britain from the 1950s onwards. Participants can also contribute to a collaborative ‘big badge’ - a large banner-like artwork that, unlike small badges that are typically concealed, demands to be seen.

12:30 - 13:30: Gavin McGregor, archivist of Paud Hegarty’s pin collection on the journey of Paud’s Pins and the importance of archiving queer culture.

13:30 - 15:00 : A curated programme of short films about queer youth culture across the UK will be screened along with a relaxed crafting session.

15:00 - 16:00 : Trans Kids Deserve Better, a UK action network by trans+ youth, for trans+ youth on direct action and activism for young queer people across the country.

Curated by Tom Stocks and Helen Jockel