Glasgow Protest Film Finds Roots in Local History

Felipe Bustos Sierra says his film “Everybody to Kenmure Street” is about more than the 2021 protests in Glasgow’s Pollokshields neighborhood. The movie follows the day residents rallied after two men were detained over alleged immigration violations and helped secure their release after eight hours.

Sierra said the protests may have looked sudden, but they grew out of something deeper. He wanted the film to show how the neighborhood’s response was shaped by Glasgow’s long history of activism and support for people in need.

He pointed to Pollokshields as the most diverse neighborhood in Scotland, with 86 languages spoken there. In his telling, that sense of shared history and care helped explain why so many people were willing to take to the streets.

Sierra said the film needed to capture that broader connection to fights for women’s rights, civil rights, queer rights, housing, and working conditions. He said that history and sense of humanity were part of what made the protest possible.