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In the UK, years of austerity have pushed people to their limits and youth violence has been on the rise. BikeStormz, a movement of young bikers, attempts to offer a safe and welcoming space. However, new forms of conflict arise when police and “concerned citizens” threaten arrest for their very existence.

Synopsis

In a country where years of austerity have pushed people to their limits, and racism and prejudice are ingrained in the systems of authority, violence incubates, and inequality persists. Starting as a protest against violent crime with the slogan “knives down, bikes up,” BikeStormz, founded by social activist Mac Ferrari-Guy, has since grown into a movement and safe space for young people around London to be free and express themselves. Filmmaker Alice Russell beautifully captures groups of young people as they glide through the city, doing wheelies, tricks, acrobatics and cheering each other on as they hurtle through the postcode-neutral space of central London. Yet as they come together and find liberation through biking, they are challenged with the threat of arrest by the police and accusations of anti-social behaviour.

Media Gallery

Filmmaker Alice Russel talks to the camera

“If the Streets Were on Fire affirms the importance of communities taking local action and provides a candid critique on how police and government often poorly respond to positive youth-led initiatives.”  
- Bede Sheppard, Deputy Director, Children’s Rights, Human Rights Watch 

 

“BikeStormz are legendary, powerful, inspirational. They’ve inspired me. They’ve inspired many people.” 
- Stormzy, Musician  

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Credits

Alice Russell

Director
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Alice has worked in a variety of formats from shorts to feature docs, and on broadcast documentaries for the flagship current affairs strands Panorama and Dispatches, and on programmes for the BBC, Channel 4 and Vice News. MEN BUY SEX was her first film which won the SIMA Creative Activism Award and was awarded Vimeo Staff Picks Best of the Month. AGENTS OF CHANGE was selected as a festival focus from the premiere UK documentary festival Sheffield DocFest. Her films have screened at festivals worldwide and premiered on Nowness and Dazed. IF THE STREETS WERE ON FIRE is her debut feature.

Gannesh Raja

Producer
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Gannesh Rajah spent most of his career as a Producer, working with clients including Google, Spotify, and Sky 1. He’s worked at several film festivals and produced three short films - the first was selected for over a dozen festivals, including Foyle, Edmonton, and LSFF. His first feature doc as Associate Producer, 512 HOURS WITH MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ, premiered on Sky Arts last year. Currently working as a Development Producer, he was a Doc/Fests ‘Future Producers’’, a ‘Doc Society Fellow’, part of the BFI NETWORKS Insight Producer Programme, as well as the latest BAFTA Crew cohort. IF THE STREETS WERE ON FIRE is his first feature documentary as producer.