There comes a point during a political protest where sheer force of will wins out the day. But it definitely helps if you’ve got a dude called Van Man on your side whose sole function is to act as a human wheel clamp. Everybody to Kenmure Street chronicles the eight hour long Glaswegian stand-off between burly Home Office enforcers and the ad hoc crowd who gathered to the aid of two Muslim men picked up during a dawn raid and held in a police van. And during the celebration of Eid, no less.
Felipe Bustos Sierra’s no-frills documentary employs much amateur smartphone footage to piece together this suburban sit-in which eventually attracted national attention and forced the government agents to eventually throw in the towel and release their innocent prisoners. It’s a film about the mechanics of protest, the value of community and how the actions of just a handful choosing to give up their day in the name of justice can create a startling snowball effect. We don’t hear from law enforcement as to why the raid happened in the manner it did, and why it ended in a humiliating capitulation. Yet there’s definitely a rousing prescience to a film like this at such a politically precarious moment, and perhaps we should take this rare happy ending with a pinch of salt.
