Everybody to Kenmure Street, which was chosen as the opening gala film for this year’s Glasgow Film Festival, combines archive footage, personal footage, and a recreation of moments in 2021, when residents of Kenmure Street in Glasgow had a standoff with the police and immigration services to prevent the removal of two neighbors.
When the documentary from Felipe Bustos Sierra was first announced as part of the festival, I was immediately interested because I remember seeing the standoff in real time on social media. Being Scottish, there are so many great examples of grassroots movements and resistance, specifically in Glasgow: the Red Clydeside movement, which culminated in the Battle of George Square in 1919, and the march against Thatcher’s poll tax in 1989, which drew 50,000 people. In the 2000s, the Govanhill Baths sit-in, which lasted 140 days, prevented the swimming pool from being shut down and actually brought it back; it’s now a wellbeing center. Finally, the ‘Glasgow Girls,’ who, through a petition, were able to prevent the deportation of their best friend.
For context, in 2021, on Kenmure Street, immigration had a dawn raid, during which immigration services tried to remove two local men during the month of Eid. Glasgow has a massive Muslim community, and locals on Kemure Street saw the removal and had an eight-hour standoff to the extent one person went under the van so it couldn’t leave.
Throughout Glasgow’s history, these grassroots movements by Glaswegians have stood up for the community and taken on the powers that be. I was intrigued by the challenge this set for Sierra: all this proud history you have to link back to one moment on Kenmure Street.
Sierra’s approach to capturing this whole picture is evident in Everybody to Kenmure Street, which utilizes a multimedia approach, combining archival footage of these moments in Glasgow’s history with footage and recreations of Kenmure. It effectively captures the sense of a journey to understand the DNA of Glasgow, which really gives context for why so many people from all different walks of life turned up to Kenmure Street that day.
I was really impressed with the variety of footage, not just for showing history and context, but also for allowing the audience to feel as though they are Glaswegians themselves. The film becomes a shared experience.
The recreation really did stand out, giving the film a cinematic feel. The main recreation focuses on different perspectives: the individual under the van, the nurse who looked after the individual under the van, and one of the two men removed by immigration services, who is now sitting in the van as this standoff unfolds.
We hear their stories and vividly experience them, especially after one of these men is removed. He talks about how, even with this massive crowd outside the van, he still felt so alone, and the van is like a dark void. As we reach the climax of their release, a light shines through, and then we cut to footage of them leaving. It is such a fantastic bit of editing, but also a terrifying recreation of how lonely you can feel even with a large crowd outside.
Since the individual under the van and the nurse wanted to keep their identities hidden, the documentary uses an actor — a big name and pleasant surprise that I did not expect — as a stand-in.
Everybody to Kenmure Street is a tribute to Glasgow’s firm belief in having each other’s back. If you mess with one of ours, then you’re messing with all of us because there is nothing we Glasgwegians dislike more than someone pushing their weight around.
Review Courtesy of Matthew Allan
Feature Image Courtesy of Conic