Everybody to Kenmure Street

In May 2021, hundreds of residents of a neighborhood in Glasgow rise up in protest when two of their neighbors are picked up by immigration officers. A local resident crawls underneath the detention van to ensure the police are unable to drive off. This act proves to be the beginning of a mass protest.

In this uplifting film, video footage partly recorded by demonstrators is interspersed with interviews in which neighbors and activists look back on the uprising. A powerful outpouring of support begins, in the form of snacks, water, and blankets, and within no time the street has been transformed into an organized village of resistance—while the huge police presence looks on helplessly. Some events have been reconstructed by actors, such as the quite comical conversations with the man underneath the van.

The name of the road where this takes place, Kenmure Street, directly connects the origins of the neighborhood to the legacy of colonialism and slavery. But that same neighborhood became a symbol of Glasgow’s activist tradition and the power of civil resistance—both brought to life so powerfully in this heartwarming film.