Oscar winner Steve McQueen (53) is about to release a “disturbing” new work. As the “12 Years a Slave” director revealed in an interview with the British “Guardian”, his 24-minute documentary short film “Grenfell” will be shown in London from April 7th. In 2017, there was a terrible fire in Grenfell Tower in London, in which 72 people lost their lives.
“There are going to be people who are going to be a little disturbed,” McQueen said of his latest cinematic work. The film “Grenfell” shows a non-stop helicopter flight around the charred ruins of Grenfell Tower. Without words or soundtracks, McQueen’s camera circles the building in December 2017’s disturbing documentary short, peering into homes where victims of the blaze lost their lives.
The filmmaker, who himself grew up near council housing in west London, wants his film, which will only be shown at the Serpentine Gallery in London, to keep the public aware of the terrible fire disaster on the eve of its sixth anniversary. “It wasn’t an accident,” said McQueen, who blames “willful neglect and, to some extent, greed for money” for the fire.
The Grenfell Tower fire marked the highest death toll from a house fire in Britain since the end of the Second World War. McQueen’s accusatory short film will not be released commercially or shown on TV. It can be seen at London’s Serpentine Gallery until May 10th.
