Watch Siana Bangura’s short film ‘Denim’ about London’s displaced communities

Siana Ban­gu­ra, poet and activist, has released an unflinch­ing short film about gen­tri­fi­ca­tion in mod­ern Britain.

Titled ‘Den­im’, Ban­gu­ra has com­bined film, poet­ry and music to show what hap­pens when a city, like Lon­don, changes, and those who built com­mu­ni­ties, and gave regions their iden­ti­ty, are left behind.

Ban­gu­ra pulls no punch­es in her crit­i­cism of food chains, prop­er­ty barons and the appro­pri­a­tion of black cul­ture, which has con­tributed to the dis­place­ment of res­i­dents of South­wark, Lewisham, Hack­ney, and many oth­er Lon­don bor­oughs in recent years.

Filmed and edit­ed by Susua­na Amoah, the film fea­tures vocals by singer-song­writer, Nia Ekanem, and Maya Ban­gu­ra as Younger Siana.

The poet describes the film as “simul­ta­ne­ous­ly a per­son­al trip down mem­o­ry lane, a doc­u­men­ta­tion of a chang­ing city, and a social commentary”.

Watch the full short film below.

In 2016, Ban­gu­ra released her first poet­ry col­lec­tion, titled Ele­phant, pub­lished by Haus of Lib­er­at­ed Read­ing. Out­spo­ken and chal­leng­ing, Bangura’s poet­ry deals with black wom­an­hood, gen­der and racial pol­i­tics, among oth­er issues.

Read more about ‘Den­im’ here, and con­nect with Ban­gu­ra on Twit­ter.

Image: Susua­na Amoah