Bradford, near Leeds, is a city in the north of England. During the Industrial Revolution, it was known as THE place for wool manufacturing. Nowadays, it has a reputation for its South Asian food scene, among other things.

And in the early 1980s, it made national and global headlines when 12 young South Asian men stood trial on terrorism charges for preparing to defend their community from a racist attack. Activist filmmakers Ken Fero (Ultraviolence) and Tariq Mehmood's documentary Rebellion, from Migrant Media, a collective of radical documentary filmmakers with a focus on stories about race, class and resistance, retraces their story and broader impact. Mehmood is, in fact, one of the Bradford 12.

Rebellion world-premieres as part of the 70th edition of the BFI London Film Festival (LFF) on Oct. 14.  Revolution is the beat that drums through this electrifying story about the landmark case against the Bradford 12,  the festival website notes.

Fero talked to THR about how timely Rebellion feels today amid a renewed rise of far-right politics, why it was a journey of more than 30 years, the importance of involving the community in making the film and why cinema can be a weapon.

Rebellion feels very timely. How long did you work on it, and did you know early on that this would be a historic film that also reflects on our presence?

I met Tariq Mehmood in 1991, making another film called Britain's Black Legacy, which was looking at the history of self-defense against racist attacks in the U.K. from '61 to '91. Tariq told me about the Bradford 12, and I thought, well, I've never heard of the Bradford 12. I've heard of the Mangrove Nine; I've heard of the Birmingham Six; and I've heard about all these miscarriages of justice. But the Bradford 12 were really not very well known.

So he said we should make a film about it. Fast forward 33 years later - we got busy in the meantime making films: we decided now's the time to tell [this story]. It took about 30 years because we wanted the story to percolate and see what happens. As time passed, we began to see and get a sense that the political 
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