This year’s most haunting doco
Television has always had a power. However, unlike the reality hellhole that our network channels seem fit to bestow on us, news images remain the strongest.
Whether it’s that grainy Zapruder film footage of JFK getting shot or the horrific images of a plane hurtling into the side of the World Trade Centre, these are the pictures that endure for the most tragic of reasons.
So it is with Grenfell tower, the 24-storey apartment block which was innocuous in the west London’s skyline, but which became infamous when 72 lives were lost in a fire that should never have happened.
BBC doco which airs on TVNZ 1 tomorrow night, manages to achieve something extraordinary in its cataloguing of events – it never loses sight of the people whose lives were irrevocably changed during that night in June 2017, but it wisely stays away from a polemic about the societal schism created in its wake.
The result is easily one of the most compelling, most human and most tragic pieces of television you’ll witness this year.
Over its 90-minute run time, Bafta award-winning director Ben Anthony (who also catalogued events of London’s terrorist attack in keeps his camera on the working-class residents who survived and who wanted to talk to him – and it’s all the more riveting because of it.
Opening with what appears to be everyday people taking a seat in front of the camera, clearly with more going on behind their eyes than they initially want to convey, Anthony’s balanced piece then folds into the narrative the copious social media footage of the event, and creates something that will easily be the most haunting piece of TV witnessed this year.
The survivors share their experiences of either getting out or racing to the tower to find families trapped. It’s eye-watering and numbing stuff to be sure, but the resolve of their humanity in the face of what’s happened and what continues to play out is nothing short of humbling.
I defy you to not be moved by the numerous accounts we bear privileged insight to.
Whether it is the story of one resident who was driving from the airport when his wife called to tell him of the fire – he still found time
8.30pm to buy chocolates from the airport for his children. Sadly, they never received them. Or life-long resident of Grenfell Tower, Lorraine Beadle, who says going back to her fourthfloor flat after the fire to say goodbye was the worst decision she’s ever made, and how it has denied her the closure she desperately wanted.
These are real stories, presented without showy touches, and which pack a power hard to ignore.
Single-handedly, yet utterly respectfully, packs more emotion into every frame as it plays out.
It’s hard viewing admittedly, but it’s a timely reminder of the power of the camera and the immutable strength of what documentary-making could – and should – be.
Not once does Anthony stoop to emotive mawkish manipulation – he’s smart enough to know the survivors’ words and their diversity say more than any documentary-maker’s flair could. He’s also wise enough to let the actions of the UK Government and local council’s delays speak for themselves.
In tragedy we find unity; and in thanks to Anthony’s astute eye and seemingly simple editing, the unfolding sense of the power of community in the face of insurmountable odds can’t be brushed aside.
It’s the one powerful and yet resolutely humbling take away from a defining event, that one year on, still denies so many closure, and a doco that deserves to be seen by everyone.