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Time Out
9 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Time Out
‘Grenfell: Uncovered' interview: ‘This community lost so much and got so little back'
The biggest residential fire since the Blitz broke out in Grenfell tower on June 14, 2017. Few Londoners can have shaken off the memory of the North Kensington high-rise blazing through the night as firefighters worked desperately – and fruitlessly – to subdue it. 'I was on holiday in Thailand at the time,' remembers Grenfell: Uncovered director Olaide Sadiq. 'The news [chyron] had 'fire in London' on it, but I didn't think it was real. I didn't understand how it was even possible that this had happened.' When she got back to the UK, the filmmaker discovered that she knew one of the victims of the fire – 'Her face was popping up in group chats as missing' – which added a personal dimension to the disaster. Eight years on, her documentary about the fire is both poignant and enraging. None of the responsible parties is let off the hook – cladding manufacturers like Arconic, bureaucrats like Hammersmith and Fulham Council, and politicians alike – but the deeper story is one of resilience and misplaced trust. 'This was the biggest residential fire in Britain since the Blitz,' says Sadiq. 'You expect this kind of devastation at war, but you don't expect it in the middle of the night when people are sleeping.' You speak to a lot of traumatised people in the film. How did you approach those interviews? With respect and care. A lot of the Grenfell community have been poked and prodded for a long time, and there's a lot of trauma in everyone that's been affected by the story. We had to make it as safe a space as possible. The interviews were still the hardest I've ever done. You interrogate the companies behind the cladding products. How challenging was that aspect of the film? Yeah, the corporate side of things was complicated and eye-opening. A lot of people didn't want to speak to us, and understandably so, but everyone was given an opportunity to respond. But I'm very aware there's an ongoing criminal investigation, so I wasn't expecting anyone to welcome us with open arms. Are you concerned that a fire like this could happen again? Yeah, I think I am. We've had cladding fires since Grenfell: there was a fatal cladding fire in Valencia last year, and another one in Dagenham, where luckily there were no fatalities. I have to think that it's possible that it will happen again. Hopefully, the response will be different. The Prime Minister at the time, Theresa May, famously failed to meet Grenfell survivors. How did you get her to talk in the film? The decision to talk to us was quick; the decision to be on camera was slower. Regardless of people's political affiliations and opinions, I think it was quite brave [of her]. She wanted to own what she did and didn't do. She was happy to own that on camera, and we gave her the opportunity to do that. I respected that. What does this story say about the country that we live in? Great question. That we place a lot of trust in those that are meant to look after us. It showed me that this country is sometimes hesitant to change, but hopefully this film will spark real conversations about change. It's what the people affected by Grenfell want. Accountability, as well. You must have had two audiences in mind: the Grenfell survivors groups and those who were less familiar with the story? The story is not finished for [the Grenfell groups]. They are still waiting for what the Met Police decides to do. They're hoping [the film] brings more awareness to their story. We want it to ignite real conversation about what happened and what people want to happen next. There's still a lot of buildings with flammable cladding on them. What did you learn about Londoners making this film? I felt a sense of closeness within the community, but a sadness to it. I've always felt relatively safe living in London. What working on this showed me is that there's times it isn't safe – but in a way that you're not expecting. If you go down a dark alley in the middle of the night, you might expect something bad to happen to you, but they went to bed and woke up in the middle of night with their building on fire. That's the biggest violation of safety most people could experience. What binds the survivors together? Resilience. We spoke to very young people, we spoke to grandparents, and across the board there was a sense of resilience that I was astounded by. I was breaking down just reading the witness statements – it was harrowing. I couldn't imagine how people could get up and go after that. There was such resilience and strength in the community that lost so much and got so little back. The community lost so much and got so little back How do you cope with watching this harrowing footage, day after day? It was very difficult. It was really hard to watch some of the footage – some of it was too harrowing to use. I went for walks and listened to cheesy music, but there were people there to support us as well. I had to make sure I wasn't always sitting with the images.
Time Out
11 hours ago
- Time Out
Grenfell: Uncovered
There's a protocol you can count on to follow a public disaster in this country. It tends to begin with a years' long and expensive inquiry, and end with little change and none of the responsible parties being held to account. Some, if they're lucky, may even find themselves elevated to the House of Lords. That establishment playbook is in operation again in this poignant, winding and righteously angry documentary about the Grenfell tower fire – just as it was in ITV's Mr Bates vs The Post Office or Disney+'s 7/7 drama Suspect. Directed with forensic skill and lots of compassion by first-timer Olaide Sadiq, Grenfell: Uncovered holds the survivors of the fire in one hand, honouring their anger and grief in moving interviews, while using the other to slap down the many companies and governmental bodies whose decisions led to the loss of 72 lives on the night of June 14, 2017. The title, of course, has a poignant double meaning. The aluminium cladding applied to the residential tower block for aesthetic reasons – supposedly to satisfy Grenfell's well-heeled neighbours in the borough of Kensington and Chelsea – turned a small kitchen fire into a building-wide inferno, transforming the Fire Brigade's 'stay put' policy into a death sentence for residents. This is a poignant, winding and righteously angry documentary Sadiq pieces the night of the fire back together using audio from the emergency services, news footage, and the shakycam videos of locals. The shock and dawning horror of disembodied voices as the blaze takes hold stays with you. The list of guilty parties is long – from David Cameron's deregulation craze, to the deeply cynical cladding manufacturers, to the cost and corner-cutting of local government, and beyond – and even on that roll of dishonour ex-housing minister Eric Pickles (now Lord Pickles) is especially odious: telling the Grenfell inquiry not to 'waste his time' and confusing the death toll with Hillsborough. Campaigning housing journalist Peter Apps, heartbroken firefighter David Badillo, and a host of Grenfell residents, including teenage survivor Luana Gomes, bring humanity and heart to the story. There's so much in Grenfell: Uncovered about the state of modern Britain that Sadiq does brilliantly not to get sidetracked. About how working-class communities are talked down to and ignored. About how capitalism pursues profit even at the expense of endangering lives. About how the urgent need for change is stymied and sapped by the very review process designed to expedite it.
Cosmopolitan
12 hours ago
- General
- Cosmopolitan
Grenfell Tower now: finally, after eight years the government has announced new plans for the site
Eight years after a tragic fire broke out claiming the lives of 72 people, Grenfell Tower still stands in North Kensington, the fire-damaged building is as a stark reminder of the 72 people who were killed in the blaze eight years ago. Now, a new Netflix documentary has gone into granular detail about the fire, with Grenfell: Uncovered looking into the factors that led to the fateful event on 14 June. It took 60 hours for the fire to be fully extinguished. While the main building itself is made of concrete, the building's exterior was clad in aluminium composite material (ACM) with polyethylene (PE) at its core. PE is highly flammable, which led to the quick spread of the fire. The building is now badly damaged, with a 2020 report saying some of the disrepair to the upper levels of the tower had been exacerbated by the weather conditions. In 2018, in the run-up to the first anniversary, the top few floors of the tower had a sign added; a large green heart, which has come to be representative of Grenfell, as well as the statement: Grenfell: Forever in Our Hearts However, the government has since announced new plans for the tower block – which have not necessarily been warmly received by survivors or by those who lost loved ones in the fire. Cosmopolitan UK speaks to Jackie and Bernie Bernard, who lost their brother Ray to the Grenfell fire, as well as Grenfell: Uncovered documentary maker Olaide Sadiq, about future plans for Grenfell. In February this year, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner confirmed plans to demolish Grenfell Tower. In a statement, the government said they had consulted independent expert advice, with engineers advising 'it is not practicable to retain many of the floors of the building in place as part of a memorial that must last in perpetuity'. Because of this, the Deputy Prime Minister has concluded ' that it would not be fair to keep some floors of the building that are significant to some families, whilst not being able to do so for others'. It will now take two years for the tower to be deconstructed, with the government saying this will be done in a 'careful and sensitive way'. However, this has not been welcomed by everyone in the community. Speaking to Cosmopolitan UK, Bernie explained: 'Personally, I think it's an insult. 'I think everybody understands the tower has to come down, but it doesn't have to come down to ground level. 'I'm saying is at least keep the main reception intact so that we have a place where we can go to grieve the people that were cremated in that building. The plans aren't something the bereaved have welcomed.' Olaide Sadiq, who attended the most recent Grenfell memorial earlier this month, agreed the mood was sombre amongst those who are part of the community. 'I think there was a there was a large shock within the community when they decided that's what they were doing with the tower,' she tells Cosmopolitan UK. 'While making the documentary, a lot of our contributors told us they go to the tower regularly. It's a second grave site for them for when they want to pay their respects to people they've lost. 'There's an understanding that perhaps the building can't remain 24 storeys high, but when the tower is brought down to ground level, it's gone – and if it's out of sight, it's out of mind.' A report by the Grenfell Tower Memorial Commission said construction of a permanent memorial to those affected by the Grenfell fire could begin as early as 2026. The commission, which is comprised of of representatives of the bereaved, survivors, local residents as well as two independent co-chairs, was created in order to ensure the community was at the heart of decisions on the long-term future of the site. Plans are thought to include a garden, monument and space for grieving. The commission said: "Everyone agrees that if Grenfell Tower comes down, it should be dismantled with care and respect, and in a way that honours our loved ones who were taken from us." Kimberley Bond is a Multiplatform Writer for Harper's Bazaar, focusing on the arts, culture, careers and lifestyle. She previously worked as a Features Writer for Cosmopolitan UK, and has bylines at The Telegraph, The Independent and British Vogue among countless others.
Irish Times
14 hours ago
- Politics
- Irish Times
Grenfell Uncovered on Netflix: First-rate journalism highlights how working class victims were left waiting for answers
There are obvious parallels between the Grenfell Tower tragedy in London and the Stardust fire in Artane, Dublin , in that they were preventable calamities where the families of the dead were left waiting far too long for answers. There is also the fact that, in both cases, the victims were mainly working class. That element of the story is tackled head-on in Grenfell Uncovered, Olaide Sadiq's hard-hitting documentary about the 2017 London catastrophe, which claimed 72 lives. 'We were treated as if we didn't matter. We're working class, we're poor,' says one former resident of the west London tower block in comments that carry clear echoes of the official response to the Stardust blaze. Grenfell and its aftermath are told via eyewitness testimonies, including those of Luana Gomes, who was 12 at the time and had to be put into an induced coma after she and her family descended 21 flights of stairs in pitch-black smoke. 'We covered ourselves with the blankets my dad had put in the bathtub. I grabbed my dog. Dashed for the stairwell,' she says. The cause of the fire was the highly flammable cladding attached to the outside of the building in a penny-pinching makeover intended to address complaints that the tower had become an eyesore in affluent Kensington. One expert likens the covering to 'sticking a petrol tanker to the outside of the building'. Safer cladding would have cost extra – but not a lot, around £40 per renovated flat. [ Grenfell Tower, where 72 people died, 'to be demolished', families are told Opens in new window ] By the time of the fire, this cladding was already prohibited across much of Europe (although the situation in Ireland is not specified). But not in the UK, where Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron had led a campaign against state regulation of the private sector. 'The driving ideology was deregulation,' says one contributor. 'The state had no place telling private businesses what they should or shouldn't do.' READ MORE Cameron had been replaced by Theresa May by the time of Grenfell, and she was widely criticised for not visiting the tower block the morning after the fire. To her credit, she is the only prominent politician to appear in the Netflix film, and she accepts her share of culpability. 'One of the issues was the way in which authority had failed to listen to [the residents],' she says. 'I merely exacerbated that by not going to see them first off. It was important given the scale of the tragedy.' Were it possible, some politicians come off even worse than Cameron and May. There is Eric Pickles, now 'Lord Pickles' but, at the time, secretary of state at the Department for Communities and Local Government. At the official Grenfell inquiry, he urged officials not to waste his time – before confusing the death toll from Grenfell with that of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster in Sheffield. [ 'The fire broke our family': Grenfell was, above all else, a human tragedy Opens in new window ] 'Seventy-two residents died. 96 was the number of the victims of the Hillsborough disaster,' says housing journalist Peter Apps. 'That number should sit with everybody. If it's not important, you'll mix it up with another disaster where lots of working-class people died.' Grenfell Uncovered is important public service journalism, and it's a shame that the film couldn't resist a cheesy stunt at the end by appearing to imply that Luana's mother had died in the fire – only for it to be revealed at the end that she survives (though her unborn son did not). That one lapse aside, however, the film is first-rate long-form reporting. It makes you wonder, if Netflix were to apply the same journalistic rigour to Ireland, what might come wriggling out from under the rocks? Grenfell Uncovered runs on Netflix from Friday, June 20th
Telegraph
15 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Grenfell Uncovered: Netflix should be commended for such sober, vital journalism
The only fault in Grenfell Uncovered, Netflix's feature-length documentary about the 2017 Grenfell Tower disaster, is that it doesn't uncover that much. Although director Olaide Sadiq has worked meticulously through the litany of failures that led to the fire that killed 72 people – and although it is absolutely worth reiterating how the warnings were ignored, how private companies put profit before public safety and how the then-government put a crazed disdain for what it called 'red tape' ahead of its citizens' protection – all of this was covered off in gruesome, shocking detail in the Grenfell Inquiry's 1,700-page final report. This was published in September last year and was widely summarised and reported. Still, in an era of global streamers with disparate, global audiences, part of the challenge for documentary-makers is second guessing what their viewers will know already. In this, Grenfell Uncovered has gone for the only available option, which is the full, grim picture. It is not, it hardly needs saying, an easy watch. In many ways, the documentary's trump card is its editing. That sounds very boring, but for the viewer it means a linear narrative, starting from the first 999 call, that then spread its tentacles down timelines of personal stories and historic corporate malfeasance. The dexterous splicing means that in spite of all this context, the film retains an agonising momentum. As portrayed here, Arconic, Celotex and all the other stupidly named multinationals got busy with their 'systematic dishonesty' years ago while in the foreground Grenfell burned. Personal testimony from the families who lost love ones is contrasted with staggering bureaucratic indifference and what the inquiry called 'a merry-go-round of buck-passing'. It'll make you angry, which is precisely what this kind of sober, important journalism should do. This, as you'll have gathered, is an excellent documentary, and credit should be given to Netflix for commissioning it. It is well known in telly circles that these are dire times for documentary film-makers. Big streamers, the line goes, want to steer clear of politics, instead opting for big, user-friendly series, ideally involving gruesome historical crimes about which we can speculate to our hearts' content. Grenfell Uncovered is not that. Not only is it a one-off film, foregoing the subscription catnip of a series for a more powerful one-shot format, but it also goes for the jugular. The Cameron government that loosened regulations are lambasted, along with Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, the London Fire Brigade and every individual who could be proved to have shirked their responsibilities. The then-prime minister Theresa May even appears in an interview in which she addresses both her actions and, more importantly, her inactions. Like much of the film, this is not quite the coup it has been presented as – May has said she regrets her response (not going to meet survivors of the blaze when she first visited the site) before. But her inertia was presented in the film as part of a more general theme – of powerful people and corporations having the chance to take action, and choosing not to. Carelessness, yet again, costs lives.
