Riot is an intellectual autobiography of the artist Isaac Julien, whose trail-blazing career has pushed film through the forms of documentary, biography, dance, narrative, and multiscreen installation and into the spaces of art. As such, the book is an original, firsthand account of one of the crucial aesthetic developments of the last thirty years.

Riot is the first book to offer an overview of Julien's career and to set it in the context of his personal and intellectual path: the friendships, mentors, films, politics, songs, and artworks that have informed his thinking. Punk rock, urban riots, club and disco culture, the AIDS crisis, the migration of populations, the globalization of the art world—these and much more make appearances in Riot, in chapters written by Julien with Cynthia Rose and in essays by a distinguished group of his friends and colleagues with their own perspectives on his career. The book is richly illustrated with images from Julien's work and from his personal and studio archive. Hardcover. 248 pages; 310 illustrations.