British filmmaker Steve McQueen has produced a powerful short film remembering the 2017 Grenfell tragedy, showing at London’s Serpentine Gallery.
On 14 June 2017, 72 people died in the most devastating residential blaze in Britain since World War II.
Six months after the disaster, McQueen took his camera to capture the remains of the high-rise before it would get wrapped in the white protective plastic that still covers the 67m-high structure.
The Building Safety Act has begun addressing many of the failings that led to the Grenfell tragedy, and the film provides a solemn reminder of why the legislative changes are necessary.
“I feared once the tower was covered up it would only be a matter of time before it faded from the public’s memory,” McQueen wrote in his introduction to Grenfell. “In fact, I imagine there were people who were counting on that being the case. I was determined that it never be forgotten.”
The result was a 24-minute film, shot in one long aerial take from a helicopter, which takes us from the leafy suburbs of north-west London to the site of the Grenfell Tower.
Bird’s eye view
Through this slow bird’s-eye view, we pass iconic landmarks like Wembley stadium and the Shri Swaminarayan Temple. The busy transport arteries of the Westway and Great Western Railway tracks can be heard.
Then – silence, as the Grenfell Tower looms into focus. The camera begins rotating around the block, capturing the interiors of every flat in the burnt skeleton of the high-rise.
Where a kitchen or bedroom would once have been, there are sacks filled with rubble, and propping supporting the structure.
Most jarring perhaps are the charred remains of the combustible aluminium composite cladding that fatally condemned the 72 victims.
The film finishes with a cut to black.
Outside the screening room, a white wall displays the 72 names of the people who were killed in the fire. Coincidentally, this June will mark 72 months since those lives were lost.
A panel in the gallery reminds us that four years after the publication of phase one of the government inquiry, the recommendations have not yet been implemented, “meaning a similar tragedy could happen again”.
Daily screenings of Grenfell will take place until 10 May. Tickets can be booked for free here.
