Finding redemption at the bars

Passer­by often can’t help but take a pause when they see bod­ies corkscrew­ing in the air or engaged in grav­i­ty-defy­ing bal­ances. When a freestyle ses­sion is ongo­ing, the ener­gy and acro­bat­ics are impos­si­ble to ignore.

A vibrant, sup­port­ive com­mu­ni­ty is grow­ing up around bar parks across Lon­don. It’s all thanks to char­i­ty Steel War­riors, which cre­ates out­door cal­is­then­ics equip­ment from melt­ed down knives recov­ered from London’s streets. The free lessons Steel War­riors lead at three sep­a­rate Lon­don parks each week pro­vide a safe space and has drawn many young peo­ple away from the vio­lence on the capital’s streets. Direc­tor and pho­tog­ra­ph­er Spencer Mur­phy cre­at­ed The Bars, as an inti­mate por­trait of this diverse net­work of peo­ple sup­port­ing each oth­er through out­door exercise.

“Every­one is accept­ed, the atmos­phere is upbeat and ener­getic,” Spencer explains. ​“It just feels like one of those rare occa­sions where almost all of Lon­don is rep­re­sent­ed and are inter­act­ing in one place. The skill lev­el is also insane, I dare any­one who hasn’t tried body weight exer­cise to give even the most basic of their moves a try. When you appre­ci­ate what it takes, their strength and con­trol becomes even more mind-blowing.”

Simone Ming has been train­ing at the bars since 2012 and is now a Trustee & Train­er with Steel War­riors. ​“Going to the bars has made me feel wel­comed,” Simone says. ​“It’s made me feel like I belong and that I’m appre­ci­at­ed and that I’m accept­ed for being who I am and admired for doing what I can do.”

The peo­ple who come to Steel War­riors street work­out gyms come from all nations, races and social groups. Many come from with­in some of the com­mu­ni­ties most affect­ed by vio­lent crime in Lon­don. For those who have expe­ri­enced vio­lence in their lives, the open­ness, struc­ture and sup­port net­work found on the bars can be life-chang­ing. The bars offer an avenue to chan­nel ener­gies towards a more pos­i­tive path, while the com­mu­ni­ty built around the class­es offers love and encouragement.

But every­one comes to the bar for dif­fer­ent rea­sons. ​“What I most love about cal­is­then­ics is that every­body is so sup­port­ive,” Simone says. ​“There aren’t any egos – maybe 1 or 2 – but in gen­er­al, every­body is there to sup­port every­one else. If you want to learn some­thing then there’s always going to be some­body that’s going to help you to achieve your final goal: whether it’s just to jump a lit­tle bit high­er or move your hands a lit­tle bit more over the bar. You don’t find that a lot in any oth­er sports. Cal­is­then­ics and street work­out is the only sport I found that real­ly sup­ports each oth­er, regard­less of who you are, where you come from.”

Com­ing from his back­ground in pho­tog­ra­phy, Spencer decid­ed to shoot stills along­side the long process of mak­ing the film, show­cas­ing a spec­tac­u­lar edit in an accom­pa­ny­ing zine. ​“I knew this was a sto­ry that wouldn’t be done jus­tice through stills alone as it is so kinet­ic,” Spencer explains. “ I think the two things [film and pho­tog­ra­phy] are intrin­si­cal­ly linked but also slight­ly dif­fer­ent. What I’m pleased I was able to do with the stills project and the zine is not have to make it so char­ac­ter focussed for the nar­ra­tive. So I got to include a lot more of the wider com­mu­ni­ty and show more faces of the peo­ple I met and made friends with last summer.”

Spencer explains that his ini­tial vision for the film quick­ly dis­ap­peared and instead he allowed the nar­ra­tive to build over time as he and DoP Ed Andrews spent more and more time among the group. ​“What I hoped to show was just what a pos­i­tive effect this small char­i­ty has had and can have on a com­mu­ni­ty. I want­ed to show the ath­letes and to show off their abil­i­ty. What I think shines through is a gen­uine and joy­ous com­mu­ni­ty of friend­ly people.”

The Bars is direct­ed by Spencer Mur­phy and shot by Ed Andrews.

Huck Presents is our brand new stream to cel­e­brate films we love and cham­pi­on emerg­ing film­mak­ers we admire. If you would like your film fea­tured, get in touch.

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