It’s been nearly 2 months since the Grenfell Tower fire. In this time 9 survivors, local residents and volunteers have felt compelled to make a film to dispel the public’s fear from the Lancaster West community and reveal the deep impact this has had on them as people.
‘The survivors are not statistics they are humans beings’, says Adrianne McKenzie, one of the film-makers who has been struck by the way the survivors are seen in terms of ‘what they can be given … not as people’. Film-maker and youth worker Nendie Pinto-Duschinsky supported the team of young film-makers and describes the film as ‘harrowing to make’ but the ‘articulacy, dignity and insight of the young people will change perceptions’. Young people lost their lives on the night running into the building to save people. We hope the film will transform the way the community are seen from ‘angry and un-relatable’ to the truth that they are ‘coping with their suffering by trying to help other people’. Their humanity and morality is the clear message.
The media has covered the story in ways that the local community are not satisfied with, the evening will touch in the disparity between eye witness accounts and the reporting of events as they unfold on national media as well as the dangerous spread of misinformation.
There will be a discussion after the film with the survivors of the tragedy and the film-makers to share their personal accounts of the fire, and how disasters like this are reported in the UK.
Joining the discussion will be the journalist Ed Vulliamy. Growing up in Notting Hill, Vulliamy has written regularly on the ruthless development of the area that has divided those living in West London. He regularly writes for the Guardian.
Watch Channel 4’s excerpt of the film here
Interviews with some of the young people in the film here
Speakers
Zoe Dainton and David Benjamin lived on the 4th Floor of Grenfell Tower where the fire started. ‘ We’re two of the lucky ones we survived, we got out. People feel lost right now, everyone’s walking round like zombies[…] Here round Latimer where Grenfell is everyone knew each other, was friendly with each other there wasn’t much trouble. It was nice, as a community we were quite close…Some kids are lucky that they won’t remember this apart from in pictures and videos. There was a girl who went to school the next day and done her GCSEs in her pyjamas, she’s going to remember that forever’.
Shona Harvey lives 5 minutes from Grenfell Tower and went to primary school with Zoe. ‘Ladbroke Grove was a special area for me to grow up in because it’s culturally diverse, and it’s home to one of the biggest street carnivals in the world, The Notting Hill Carnival’, Shoana says. ‘Even myself, I was sitting down with some friends in a cafe, we were talking about what’s going on but then you do pause and think, am I laughing too much? I do think to myself maybe I feel a little better… but then you watch more footage on the news and it hits me again and I can feel my emotions building up and you realise it’s still quite fresh’.
Adrianne McKenzie is a freelance film-maker who spent much of her youth in West London. She was making a film about the closure of Stowe Youth Club near to Grenfell Tower when the fire happened. She picked up her camera and began to record events from the first night. Struck by the de-humanisation of the survivors, spending time on the ground has revealed that ‘…no-one’s really talking much about the people apart from what they can be given. So these luxury apartments or £5,000 from the government… No ones really thought about them as people they are just statistics. I feel like the survivors have been forgotten about. People are fighting a lot for the deceased but not as hard for the people who are still here’.
Reece Yeboah lives underneath Grenfell Tower and sees it every morning. He is a fashion designer and young creative pursuing his dreams. He feels if Princess Diana was alive she would have come and helped the people of Grenfell. ‘My niece goes to nursery in Grenfell Tower so on the morning of the fire I took her to nursery.’ ‘We’re doing this because we’re a community and we’re doing it from our hearts but we shouldn’t have to, the council should be doing this’. I lost 4 or 5 friends in the tower, but it’s probably more, most people in the tower, I used to see them everyday.’
Pilgrim Tucker is a community organiser and campaigner. She has many years experience of working on projects aimed at amplifying the voices of local residents, service users and community members, supporting them to organise to influence decisions that affect them. She worked with Grenfell residents in 2015 to help them campaign against the refurbishment undertaken KCTMO and Rydon. Since the fire she has continued to work with residents on the Lancaster west estate that surrounds the tower.
There will be an optional donation (£5 + standard ticket) when you book. You can also donate optionally via paypal:
We will be accepting donations for the survivors of the fire who will be attending the evening. 20 million pounds was donated by the public to meet the emergency needs of the survivors, many of whom are still ill from the fire without regular food and basic clothing. The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Council have imposed eligibility criteria which prevent or delay survivors claiming money in many cases. For example to receive the ‘Fresh Start’ grant of £10,000, survivors must be in permanent accommodation, which they are not.
Nearly all of the 250 families are in temporary accommodation as the permanent accommodation offered is unsuitable or not ready. The small percentage of donations that have been given out for the most part have been awarded to community organisations.
We would encourage you to donate to the fund at the screening to help them get on their feet during this uncertain period of their lives.
The Frontline Charitable Trust is a not-for-profit organisation.
]]>Steve Goodrich of Transparency International will share the organisation’s latest insights into the offshore companies that own 40,000 properties across London, and describe his attempts to see behind them and discover their true owners.
Anna Minton, author of Big Capital, will tell the inside story of London’s housing crisis, and lay out who is to blame.
Jon Benton, until earlier this year head of the National Crime Agency’s International Corruption Unit, will talk about why it is so hard to investigate money laundering through property.
Kleptoscope 5 looks at this under-acknowledged economic catastrophe, and asks why it is so hard to recover assets stolen by kleptocrats. And what role does London play as both a safe haven for looted money, and a laundering centre for money being invested elsewhere?
As usual, the evening is hosted by investigative journalist Oliver Bullough, who will introduce a panel of hugely experienced and knowledgeable practitioners from the three spheres of asset recovery: law enforcement, private practice and civil society.
William Bourdon is a French lawyer who specialises in corporate, media and criminal law. In 2001, he founded Sherpa to “defend the victims of crimes committed by economic operators”, and has sought to bring cases against kleptocratic rulers of countries with assets in France: including Senegal, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and Congo-Brazzaville. He recently created PPLAAF, a platform to protect whistle blowers in Africa (https://pplaaf.org).
Daniel Hall is a director at Burford Capital, a firm that specialises in funding asset recovery cases. He has spent more than a decade investigating fraud and financial crime, with a particular emphasis on sovereign cases.
David O’Mahony is a barrister at 7BR and specialises in offshore issues. He has been instructed in cases involving money laundering and criminal fraud, civil and commercial law, arbitration, domestic and international financial regulation and international crime. He advises on public and private international law and international criminal law and has deep knowledge of the law of bribery and corruption.
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]]>The panel, chaired by prominent investigative journalist Oliver Bullough, examined ground-breaking stories focusing on Arab Spring countries. They explored how kleptocrats from the region have used the services of the British capital to retain and launder their money.
Ala’a Shehabi of Bahrain Watch addressed the Frontline Club, explaining the extent corruption has plagued Bahrain. In recent years, extensive sections of the island’s surrounding waters have been dredged and reclaimed as land, with more than 65 km2 of Bahrain’s land having been privatised in the process ‘the sea was literally disappearing’.
Corrupt Bahraini officials and others exploited this land reclamation as a means to generate vast wealth, selling land and the developments built upon it for enormous profits. The wealth created in the process has since flowed into London, and is particularly prevalent in the capital’s housing market.
‘London is being used to… hide and stash dirty money away. It is a guaranteed safe investment… because it has an accelerating housing market and no one will know who you are. The minute we expose who these people are, the incentives to come to London will disappear,’ explained Shehabi.
Bahrain Watch has worked to expose the financial exploitation committed by the nation’s elites, and has had recent success in revealing the money flowing through the King’s own company ‘Premier Group’. 21 high-end London properties belong to the company’s portfolio, including The Four Seasons and The Marriot on Park Lane. Shehabi described the company as being involved in the ‘alchemy of making money from sand’.
Prior to receiving a leak detailing the corporate structure of the group the information pertaining to the company’s ownership structure and property holdings had been successfully obscured. When Bullough asked her about the difficulty of exposing financial malpractice in Bahrain before she obtained this data, Shehabi said ‘It was a web of information which had been completely obscured. Who owns the sea? This was never registered as public land.’
Shehabi points to the Arab uprising of 2011 as being a pivotal moment for the nation’s people in finally registering their discontent at the widespread corruption that had engulfed the island and its political class. However, she decried the failure of media coverage to pick up on this source of anger as a critical driving force for the political revolt, ‘that’s a story that hasn’t been properly told yet’.
Speaking passionately about the struggles she now encounters in trying to access her homeland, Shehabi concluded by referring to the important work she is now doing in London to combat the flow of wealth out of Bahrain and away from the nation’s own citizens.
Ben Cowdock of Transparency International outlined the sheer scale of the illicit money generated during the Arab Spring, much of which has since flowed through the UK. The National Crime Agency estimates that tens if not hundreds of billions of illicit cash flows through the UK each year.
The misappropriation of state budgets within certain Middle East states in recent years has resulted in huge sums of money being accumulated in the hands of a very select few individuals. Cowdock gave the striking example of Syrian state finances, with Bashar Al Assad’s cousin reportedly owning 60% of the national economy in 2011 according to Transparency International. Illicit money owned by such individuals has flowed into London in vast quantities following the Arab Spring.
Explaining why the capital is a hive of activity for the channelling of such funds, Cowdock said: ‘The UK is a safe haven for corrupt money. It’s a safe haven because it’s a global financial hub, so trillions of pounds come through the UK each year. It’s easy to hide that money within legitimate money. It’s a stable legal environment, you’re unlikely to have your assets taken off you by the government… and has a thriving property market so you’re able to buy gold blocks of bullion in the sky.’
Referring to the network of ‘professional enablers’ that exist within the UK, Cowdock detailed the money being made by professional services in London through the trade of illicit money via property. He highlighted legal firms, banks and estate agents as being just a few of the industries who are generating money as a result of this financial traffic, be that implicitly or explicitly.
The UK’s close links with overseas territories such as the British Virgin Islands and other notable tax havens has made it an increasingly attractive destination for illicit money. Cowdock spoke passionately about the need for the UK to bolster transparency, asset recovery systems and defences against such practice in the future if the capital and the nation as a whole is to combat the problem effectively.
Richard Brooks of Private Eye revealed to the audience the map Private Eye have put together detailing property acquired by overseas companies within the UK from 2005-2014. The map helps to track the flow of dirty money in the UK, designating the ownership details of the vast extent of real estate owned across the nation by foreign companies.
Brooks suggested many of these companies have links to offshore banking and investment programmes, which act as a channel and safe haven for illicit funds.
When asked by Oliver Bullough as to why we put up with such practices, Brooks replied jovially that the UK is keen not to put off entrepreneurs,’we are open for business remember.’
Brooks delighted the crowd when he revealed the case of an underground parking space in Kensington being owned by a company in St Lucia, detailing the truly absurd flow of capital and ownership structure in this instance. His point was well made, he documented to the audience extremely effectively the nature of the high-end property market in London and its murky finances using this and other examples.
Responding to a question pertaining to the importance of greater regulation in this area, Brooks made the moral case for a tighter legal framework, saying: ‘laws serve a purpose of saying we don’t think this is great, meaning such behaviour becomes less socially acceptable.’ Cowdock supported this view, arguing there is a need to ‘create larger disincentives for companies and individuals involved and raise awareness of the moral and financial cost of enabling and facilitating dodgy money transactions.’
When asked about comparisons within Europe regarding the issue of illicit money flows, Brooks revealed that ‘the EU has been a pretty positive force in the last few years regarding financial transparency. It’s certainly dragged along other countries like the UK.’ He expressed concern over the potential impact of Brexit in this area.
The panel united in calling for greater transparency of data from central government, better protections and incentives for whistle-blowers and enlarged anti-corruption budgets.
Cowdock finished: ‘dirty money follows the path of least resistance. Greater regulation raises the obstacles to its passage.’
*This was the second talk in the Frontline Club’s series of Kleptoscope events investigating corruption and dirty money in London: interrogating its origins, its launderers and how it gets spent. The first Kleptoscope event featured three ground-breaking stories focusing on the former Soviet Union, and explored how Russian kleptocrats have used the services of the British capital to retain and launder their money; how London’s property market has become a piggy bank for the world’s corrupt elite; and how ex-Soviet businessmen have covertly funded MPs and parliamentary groups, gaining preferential treatment as a result.
]]>This talk will feature groundbreaking stories focusing on Arab Spring countries, exploring how kleptocrats from the region have used the services of the British capital to retain and launder their money.
Ala’a Shehabi, of Bahrain Watch, will reveal how Bahraini officials built luxury artificial islands in the sea, hid the transactions behind layers of offshore companies, then spent the proceeds on high-end real estate in London and how this fuelled the uprising in 2011 and subsequent repression in the country.
Ben Cowdock from Transparency International will present a new TI-UK report on dirty money in the UK, its role in the Arab Spring and the need for urgent reform in the UK’s asset recovery regime. He will address the UK’s role as a safe haven for corrupt money, giving an overview of the systemic weaknesses of the UK’s mechanisms against the laundering of corrupt funds.
Finally, Richard Brooks of Private Eye will demonstrate the map he and his colleagues created of all the properties in England and Wales that are owned offshore. The map gives crucial insights into the role of anonymous companies in distorting the British property market.
Oliver Bullough is an award-winning journalist and the author of two books about Russian history and politics, The Last Man in Russia and Let Our Fame be Great. He is also an expert guide for the Kleptocracy Tours initiative, which exposes money laundering via property in London.
]]>One summer morning in 2011, London’s Metropolitan Police pulled over Mark Duggan– a young, black, British man– and shot him dead. His killing sparked what became known as the Tottenham riots, and set off a chain reaction of arson and looting across the country.
Images of burning buildings and hooded men breaking windows filled television screens, but the media rarely reported on the riots in more depth. Why had this happened? What lessons should have been learned?
George Amponsah’s documentary The Hard Stop, which showed at The Frontline Club on July 8, picks up the story from where the media left off. It follows Duggan’s childhood friends Marcus Knox-Hooke and Kurtis Henville as they deal with the aftermath of his death, and offers a portrait of two men often misrepresented by the headlines.
At a Q&A session with all three after the screening, Amponsah highlighted how the media had wrongly reported Duggan’s death as part of a shoot-out. He said: “One of the things that propelled me to make the film when I met Marcus and Kurtis, was a desire to find out what I didn’t feel like I got from the media…and that’s just simply the humanity of the victim.”
“In terms of media distortion…there’s a very iconic image of Mark that went out to a lot of newspapers and media outlets, which was him seemingly scowling out at the camera, and at the same time being labelled as a gangster. That image has become quite famous because when you see the whole picture, it’s actually Mark at the graveside of his daughter who died at stillbirth and he’s holding a love-heart. The initial image that was used to portray him as a gangster is actually a picture of a father suffering bereavement.”
Knox-Hooke added: “When I felt offended by what they were saying about my bro (Mark), I felt like we just had to do something to shed some light on who he was as a person.”
One audience member questioned whether the media should be held responsible for reporting on the basis of what the police had told them. Amponsah replied by acknowledging that some outlets, particularly The Guardian, had produced excellent analysis of the riots. Many other outlets, however, had opted for the knee-jerk demonisation that many young black men from communities like Tottenham say they experience at the hands of police.
“I think it is important that police officers see this film, because as far as I’m concerned, it’s really just a film about humanity,” said Amponsah. “Since 1990, there’s been 1500 deaths in police custody or following a police contact, but not one conviction of a police officer for murder. That doesn’t represent any kind of ability on the police’s part to change in terms of making themselves accountable.”
Knox-Hooke described what it was like growing up on Broadwater Farm, an estate notorious for rioting and the murder of PC Blakelock in 1985, adding that tensions with the police have continued to simmer under the surface ever since.
“It’s a war,” he said. “Growing up, they (the police) always used to chase us, run us down for no reason… Mainly they just wanted the satisfaction of seeing us frightened and seeing us crying. As you get older, that fear turned to anger and bravery, so when they pull up you challenge them. You’re not running anymore.”
Amponsah added: “Personally I suspect that Mark Duggan might still be with us if he was white and not from Broadwater Farm.”
An audience member asked Knox-Hooke and Henville whether the recent verdict on unlawful killing in the Hillsborough disaster gave them any hope for a fresh inquest into Duggan’s case.
Knox-Hooke replied: “I’m hoping that the officer that shot Mark will come forward after some time and say, I did make a mistake… or tell us what happened. I’ve got a little bit of hope, still.”
He added that making The Hard Stop had had a positive impact on his life, and said the group had plans to screen it around the country, particularly in schools and colleges.
“We want this film to reach the children,” he explained.
“The lifestyle that I used to live to how I’m living now is just two different lives. George helped me make that transition. At the beginning of the film, I was very negative, very angry. Now, I’m at peace with myself, especially when I see the reaction of the audience to the film… I believe we achieved what we set out to do.”
Listen to the recording of the event on soundcloud:
The Hard Stop trailer:
]]>London’s Metropolitan Police stopped Mark Duggan — a young, black, British man — early one morning in 2011. Minutes later Duggan was dead. His killing at the hands of the police sparked the now infamous Tottenham riots and made headlines around the globe, but, as so often happens, the issue soon dropped from the news reports.
Picking up the story where the media left off, George Amponsah‘s The Hard Stop begins in Duggan’s neighbourhood, following his friends Marcus and Kurtis as they fight for justice while struggling against discrimination in their daily lives. Using the police inquiry into Duggan’s death as a backdrop, Amponsah challenges the prevailing spin on events and focuses instead on those who were closest to the young man – as well as the black voices that are consistently marginalised.
An emerging talent in the documentary world, Amponsah‘s investment in London’s black community is evident in his unprecedented level of access and in his commitment to capturing the world Duggan knew. Amponsah brings a lyrical beauty to the streets of North London, painting a very different picture than the one that’s often seen on the evening news.
Directed by: George Amponsah
Country: United Kingdom
Year: 2015
Runtime: 85′
@TheHardStop / #TheHardStop
facebook.com/TheHardStopFilm/
The panel consisted of award-winning filmmakers Liam Saint-Pierre, Chloe White, Marc Silver, and Gemma Atkinson, with documentary programmer and DocHouse producer Jenny Horwell moderating the discussion.
The discussion began with an overview of techniques and inspirations from each filmmaker – and it was soon evident that the speakers did not stick to any unchangeable formula in their work.
“There is no process for when I’m making films,” Silver said, with White adding that he views himself as “more of a spontaneous filmmaker.”
Atkinson said: “I let the character dictate what direction the film goes in, rather than going into it with a big plan, which means it can go in any direction.”
“It has been quite nice to hear the others tonight, often I thought it was just me who was so haphazard!,”commented Saint-Pierre.
Great to see such a talented, eloquent bunch of documentary makers at @frontlineclub. Time I dusted off the camera. pic.twitter.com/JXSRVQbox4
— Peter Yeung (@ptr_yeung) February 15, 2016
Although there was a general consensus that the creative process should not be formulaic, three elements were highlighted for their significance at the start of a project: inspiration by way of specific characters, places, and issues.
“I like characters who are really passionate about something, and they are kind of on the edge of society,” said Saint-Pierre, as he explained how he found the shopkeeper around whom his first film centred.
Silver added: “for me, the place is a character. It’s not just the people, but also the essence of a place.”
Each of the panellists agreed that they aimed to spend as much time as possible with their subjects. Silver explained that on a five-day shoot, he would try and spend the first two days with his subjects without his camera. “I might take a stills camera, just for fun. But I’ve learnt from the past that I don’t need to over-shoot – and also I need to get past the first layer with that person and gain trust.”
However, the panel also reflected on how working with tight budgets and shorter timelines meant that the aim of spending significant time with their subjects was often unrealistic.
Horwell then moved the discussion onto one of the final stages of short documentary production: the editing process.
She asked the filmmakers to comment on their top tips for this stage, and how they avoid common mistakes.
“Hold the shot for longer than you plan. Whatever time you are holding it for, add an extra 5-10 seconds” Atkinson advised.
White agreed, and cemented the point with an extended clip from her film The Long Haul: “At the time I didn’t know that shot would be so useful, but trusting your shots and holding them for a long time, you’ll be thankful when it comes to the edit.”
Saint-Pierre added that for him “it was a matter of the character; you don’t want to turn the camera off. Often I’ve done it and then missed an amazing moment.”
The conversation did not run chronologically through the filmmaking process due to the non-linear nature of short documentary production – as Horwell had predicted – and the discussion touched on subjects including the use of ‘playful’ introductions, to how to best distribute your content online.
]]>The plethora of technology now available to communicate different forms of journalism, across a variety of platforms, has allowed journalists more freedom in their storytelling process. This is the driving force behind Me-Mo, a new multimedia magazine created by award-winning freelance photojournalists, Manu Brabo and Fabio Bucciarelli, in partnership with web-developing group, Libre.
(l-r) Matteo Dispenza, Manu Brabo, Fabio Bucciarelli and Paul Lowe
On Tuesday 17 February, Brabo and Bucciarelli, along with Libre president Matteo Dispenza, convened at the Frontline Club to discuss the genesis of Me-Mo and to share their thoughts on the future of visual storytelling. The two photojournalists also presented their work on the Libyan revolution, which is featured in the magazine’s recently released first issue. The event was chaired by Paul Lowe, course director of the Masters Programme in Photojournalism & Documentary Photography at London College of Communication, University of the Arts London.
The difficulties faced by freelancers when looking for viable ways to publish their work was a main source of inspiration for the founders of Me-Mo. This was especially evident during the Libyan War in 2011, when Bucciarelli and Brabo both worked as freelance photographers for various major news outlets. After their return from Libya, the two photojournalists continued to work in conflict areas and began to brainstorm and collaborate with other freelance journalists in order to develop the Me-Mo concept.
Brabo emphasised the necessity of collaboration and solidarity amongst freelancers, saying: “We are out there alone. If we don’t have each other, what do we have? We have nothing. In the end, through this sense of humanity and solidarity, you start to create links and you realise you have the same idea as another guy.”
“We are trying to create a space for all these kinds of people, people that we know, who have been working in Syria, in Libya for too long.”
Bucciarelli and Brabo hope that the magazine will become an innovative platform for freelancers who want to maintain creative control over their material in the commercialised world of news journalism. They want their contributors to fully utilise the capabilities of digital technology and to build a dynamic interaction with their subscribers. Bucciarelli said: “What we are trying to do is use the digital way… not only using picture or video, but also 360 pictures, paralysis effect, 360 video, infographics… A new platform for freelancers using the digital way.”
Each issue of Me-Mo will concentrate on a central theme, the first issue focused on fear, and will be published four times a year. A single issue can be bought for €10, and a year-long subscription is priced at €25. On this subject, Dispenza commented: “We decided to work on quality and not quantity.”
An audience member enquired as to whether Me-Mo would accept submissions exclusively from photojournalists, or if they would be open to stories presented through other journalistic mediums. The panelists agreed that high quality content was Me-Mo’s ultimate goal.
Dispenza said, “It’s more about the ideas and not about one kind of media. Me-Mo is really open to every kind of good idea because we are not a big publisher and we are really free to do the best things we can choose together. It’s really about the ideas.”
Watch and listen back to the event below:
]]>Over the past five years the economic crisis has focused attention on capitalism and its shortcomings. Secret City uncovers the hidden history of the institutions at the heart of the crisis in the UK. The film investigates the power wielded by the Corporation of London and exposes the secret governance of the City of London through which London’s position at the centre of global finance is sustained.
Against the backdrop of the London Occupy protests, directors Lee Salter and Michael Chanan expose the inner workings of the City. The history of London is recounted by Maurice Glasman; Robin Blackburn explains key aspects of the City’s economic history; David Joel of Kings Court Galleries presents the growth of London through historic maps; Doreen Massey considers the relationship of the City to the metropolis; and we are taken on a City tour by Occupy LSX tour guide Liam Tailor.
Secret City engages with the different narratives that connect to the City through a range of London imagery, including rarely seen archive footage, and extracts from two films about London by independent filmmakers: Anthony Simmons’ ‘Bow Bells’ (1954) and William Raban’s ‘About Now MMX’ (2010).
Directed by Michael Chanan
Written by Lee Salter
Duration: 72’
Year: 2012