There comes apoint during apolitical protest where sheer force of will wins out the day. But it definitely helps if you’ve got adude called Van Man on your side whose sole function is to act as ahuman 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 adawn raid and held in apolice van. And during the celebration of Eid, noless.
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 afilm about the mechanics of protest, the value of community and how the actions of just ahandful choosing to give up their day in the name of justice can create astartling 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 ahumiliating capitulation. Yet there’s definitely arousing prescience to afilm like this at such apolitically precarious moment, and perhaps we should take this rare happy ending with apinch ofsalt.