Felipe Bustos Sierra opens up about Everybody to Kenmure Street: Emma Thompson joins podcast

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The documentary Everybody to Kenmure Street, which chronicles a 2021 Glasgow showdown over an immigration raid, won a Special Jury Award for Civil Resistance at this year’s Sundance Film Festival — and its story is still reverberating across immigration debates in the U.K. and beyond. The film traces how neighbors blocked enforcement officers from removing two Sikh men, an act that has become a touchstone in conversations about community resistance and state power.

Directed by Felipe Bustos Sierra, the film follows a tense morning on May 13, 2021, when immigration officers moved to detain two men in a residential neighborhood. Rather than disperse, residents gathered around the enforcement vehicle; one unidentified protester, known only as Van Man, physically latched on to the van’s axle and helped prevent the removal.

From a single street to a national story

Bustos Sierra, who was living in Glasgow at the time, says he initially believed the protest would fail. As he followed the events, however, the collective response — neighbors who refused to stand aside — shifted his view. He later contacted the man at the center of the standoff; Van Man’s real identity remains private, and Oscar winner Emma Thompson appears in the film depicting him and serves as an executive producer.

The director’s own history informs his approach. The son of Chilean exiles from the Pinochet era, Bustos Sierra frames the episode as part of Glasgow’s longer tradition of mutual aid. The city, he notes, has long been a crossroads for successive migrant communities — from Highland Scots and Irish to Jews and South Asians — and carries a civic memory of defending neighborhoods against outside threats.

Festival run and screenings

Sundance Film Festival — Special Jury Award for Civil Resistance (World Cinema Documentary)

Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival — screened

Glasgow Film Festival — local screening

Doc10, Chicago and Miami Film Festival — festival showings

Sydney Film Festival — scheduled screenings on June 3 and June 10

Theatrical release began May 22 in New York; additional U.S. cities, including Los Angeles, to follow

For context, the film also screened in Minneapolis — a city where debates over immigration enforcement and law-enforcement conduct have been especially fraught after fatal incidents earlier this year involving immigration operations.

Why the story matters now

The documentary arrives at a moment when governments across several countries are tightening immigration policies and the public is increasingly debating the limits of civil disobedience. By focusing on ordinary neighbors who intervened, the film reframes resistance not as a headline-grabbing act by a few activists but as a community choice with tangible consequences for how enforcement plays out on the ground.

That shift in perspective is central to the film’s impact: it asks viewers to consider who has authority in public space, how communities protect vulnerable neighbors, and what forms of protest change outcomes.

Key facts at a glance

Date of incident: May 13, 2021

Location: Kenmure Street, Glasgow

Event: Neighbors blocked an immigration van to prevent removal of two detained men

Notable person: Van Man — protester who physically prevented the van from leaving; identity remains secret

Director: Felipe Bustos Sierra

Notable contributor: Emma Thompson (portrays Van Man; executive producer)

Bustos Sierra discussed the film and its evolution on Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast, hosted by John Ridley and Matt Carey, where he described the making of the project and why the Glasgow episode resonated internationally. The episode — and the film — invite viewers to reassess the everyday choices that shape public policy and community safety.

Everybody to Kenmure Street is now playing in theaters in New York and rolling out to additional cities and festivals in the weeks ahead. For audiences interested in the conversation it opens, the Doc Talk episode is available on major podcast platforms including Spotify, iHeart, and Apple.