As the UK documentary Everybody To Kenmure Street launches at the Sundance Film Festival in the World Cinema Documentary Competition, its producer has revealed the film has yet to close financing.
“We still need money to finish the film,” said Ciara Barry of Scotland-based outfit barry crerar. “I am in Sundance looking for investors. There’s not much more money that we need.”
Directed by Scotland-based filmmaker Felipe Bustos Sierra, the film depicts the protest in Glasgow on May 13, 2021, against the forced deportation of two residents of the street. What began as a couple of neighbours attempting to stop the deportation snowballed into a sit-in protest of several thousand people.
Kenmure Street received development finance from Screen Scotland, as its only finance source to date.
“We were turned down by other funds. We couldn’t raise finance from broadcasters. Maybe because of the political nature of our film, that wasn’t going to be an avenue for us,” said Barry, who was named a Screen Rising Star Scotland alongside her business partner Rosie Crerar in 2022.
“To not have the possibility of making a film with a broadcaster, that makes things difficult,” said Barry. “We still need money to get over the line.”
The Party Film Sales is on board to handle world sales, and Conic has acquired UK-Ireland distribution rights and is scheduling a theatrical release for spring 2026.
The producer said greater “infrastructural support” is required to assist UK independent producers. “We’ve had business development support from UK Global Screen Fund, but we continue to need support to keep going and make culturally important films that say something. We’re grateful to Screen Scotland for being our majority financier. But you can’t make a film with just one financier, you need to bring it together.”
Felipe Bustos Sierra, who previously made the 2018 documentary Nae Pasaran, about the solidarity efforts of Scots against the dictatorship of Chilean General Pinochet, acknowledged that political features often have to work to a different schedule.
“Nae Pasaran took six years to make; Everybody To Kenmure Street is going to be five years [soon],” said the director. “Part of it is how slowly funding gets there. It means we had to find some creative solutions to this. Both films were crowd-funded; so much of the footage has been given for free because people believe so much in the story.”
Documentary passion
UK production firm barry crerar, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, has made five fiction features, with Everybody To Kenmure Street its first documentary. Despite the incomplete finance, Barry suggests non-fiction offers opportunities for independent producers.
“There is something about documentary that feels more organic than scripted and drama,” said the producer. “It also feels accessible for women, for mothers, people with families, because of short shoots and you’re financing as you go – so it has been a refreshing experience. More docs coming from barry crerar.”
Kenmure Street will open the Glasgow Film Festival on February 25.
Both Barry and Sierra live in Glasgow, with the producer having participated in the 2021 protest with her then one-year-old daughter and Crerar. Both producer and director see a connection between the community protest movement depicted in the film and the cinemagoing experience.
“The special thing about Kenmure Street is how Felipe has brought together all the footage. It really does place you in the middle of the protest,” said Barry. “To experience it in a traditional cinema setting is special.”
“Collective experiences enhance your life completely,” said Sierra. “There’s an emotional connection – there’s nothing like watching a film in a crowded cinema…Part of our task is making this film as connected as possible, as loud as possible, and finding great platforms [on which] to do it. Having it at Sundance definitely does.”
The documentary about civilian protests has taken on a new dimension following the fatal shooting of two US citizens in Minneapolis since the start of the year
“What we’re going through at the moment was caused by men, and if it was caused by men, it can be unmade,” said Sierra. “This joy and positivity of what happened on the streets [in Glasgow in 2021] – this film created a space for ‘what if we all came together?’.
“It will take all of us. What if we all came together?”
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