Reviewing and reflecting on Everybody to Kenmure Street
On 13 May 2021 Kenmure Street not only witnessed but created history, an important moment in the city’s many stories and a precious victory – for a community, against racism and xenophobia, and a notable humiliation for the Home Office and its controversial dawn raids.
This is the context of Everybody to Kenmure Street directed and produced by Felipe Bustos Sierra, Glasgow-based Chilean filmmaker, who previously made Nae Pasaran about the Scottish workers who refused to work on aircraft parts being supplied to the Pinochet dictatorship. The new film is a testimony and document, that celebrates the community togetherness of this day, without ignoring its wider implications. It is an important film, worthy of serious overview, wider dissemination and audiences – with continued relevance five years after the event it portrays. This essay reviews the film while attempting to offer some pointers to those wider lessons and where we are now.