Mods & Rockers

1964: Thousands of young people from all over the country engage in brutal street battles in the southern English seaside resort of Brighton. The event is taking on proportions that can no longer be booked under pure hooliganism. The enemy camps consist of supporters of two different youth subcultures, the mods and the rockers.

Their conflict is about clothing, territories, musical tastes and a diametrically opposed attitude to life: The rockers expect nothing from society, which they understand as a machine to destroy their outsider individualism; the mods, on the other hand, want to help shape the system, create a space for themselves in which they can live out their codes, their preferences and their aesthetics.

The documentation reveals the background to this escalation and illustrates the desires and motivations of this radical youth. It is also told how much British youth not only overturned their parents' paradigms, but also shaped the international music scene and fashion.

Go to the Video at Arte