Steve McQueen To Debut Film On Grenfell Fire

Oscar-winning filmmaker and artist Steve McQueen is set to debut his latest project, a 24-minute film about the Grenfell Tower disaster, next month at the Serpentine art Gallery in West London.

The film, titled Grenfell, was shot in December 2017 and is described as McQueen’s “response to the Grenfell Tower tragedy,” which saw 72 people killed as the result of a devastating fire at the high-rise Grenfell tower apartment block in North Kensington, West London. The tragedy caused the UK’s highest loss of life following a residential fire since the Second World War.

McQueen’s film is said to run 24 minutes and 2 seconds long and features footage of the charred tower shot from a helicopter. There is no narrative story or dramatization within the installation.

“There are going to be people who are going to be a little bit disturbed,” McQueen told the British newspaper The Guardian about the installation in a new interview. “When you make art, anything half decent … there are certain people you will possibly offend. But that is how it is.”

Production on the project was completed shortly before the Grenfell tower was covered in a protective wrap to help with forensic investigations, which the Small Axe filmmaker said pushed the project into a “race against time.”

“Once things are covered up, they are forgotten about, or it can be more convenient for people who want it to be forgotten about,” McQueen told the newspaper.

The film will be exhibited at the Serpentine Gallery in West London, a short distance from the tower, from April 7 to May 10. The project was self-funded by the 12 Years A Slave filmmaker and will not be sold commercially or screened on television.

There is an ongoing criminal investigation into the origins of the fire. The UK government also launched a two-part inquiry following the fire. Last year, it was reported that the UK government had failed to implement a single recommendation from the first part of the inquiry, which concluded in 2020. Recommendations included the legal obligations to plan for the evacuation of high-rise buildings and disabled residents in the event of a serious fire.

“It was deliberate neglect,” McQueen told The Guardian of the fire. “It was no accident. There were so many people, so many companies, so many factors … It was all a deliberate act of neglect and, to a certain extent, greed.”

The findings of the second and final phase of the inquiry are due to be reported in late 2023.

Grenfell is the first of a few potential projects we can expect from McQueen in the near future. The Hunger filmmaker is currently shooting the WW2 drama Blitz, starring Harris Dickinson, Saoirse Ronan, and Stephen Graham, for Apple.

The filmmaker is also readying his long-gestating doc Occupied City based on the illustrated history book Atlas Of An Occupied City, Amsterdam 1940-1945, written by author, filmmaker, and McQueen’s wife, Bianca Stigter. The book uncovers traces of World War II in Amsterdam.