Yemi Bamiro In Conversation With BLK BRIT On Series ‘Camden’
Director Yemi Bamiro is known for his amazing portfolio of hard-hitting film; Fight the Power: How Hip Hop Changed the World which delved into how hip-hop emerged from underground New York into a global force for change and empowerment, for which he won 2024’s RTS Television Award for Best Arts Documentary. One for brilliantly depicting socially monumental movements, his works also include One Man and His Shoes, TV's Black Renaissance: Reggie Yates in Hollywood and Life of Rhyme to name a few.
Yemi’s work is the epitome of the power of good storytelling, and with his wealth of technical knowledge and skill, is a director on the new series Camden, now live on Disney+. The series beautifully captures the magnetic musical atmosphere of Camden, and we discuss Yemi’s motivation, approach, significance of the project and his journey from journalist into curating documentary films.
Yemi Bamiro, episode director of ‘Camden’
What was the main attraction or driver to do this project, Camden?
“I think it was the fact that I'd spent a bit of time in Camden- the first TV job that I'd ever got was at MTV which was based in Camden, Hawley Crescent. I spent a number of years there in the early noughties as a 20-something year old and yeah, it was just a really exciting place to work, you know, in the heart of Camden being around all of this music and this really interesting culture. I'm from South London so I can't say that I’d ventured to Camden a lot before I started working there. So for me, it was just having a personal connection to Camden and sort of just remembering how rich it was culturally, musically, creatively, and how could we take some of that and put it into the episode, basically.”
That's brilliant. It's nice when you have that personal connection to a space because then it adds that element of depth to the story when you're directing. So as UK music regains traction; the reason I say that is because there was a time where the UK music scene was quite prevalent then sort of died down a little, but now there's been a resurgence, especially with a lot of independent artists coming up. Do you feel like there'll be more opportunities to tell these stories now that there's more global interest in the UK music scene again?
“Yeah, hopefully! I think a lot of the artists that are explored in this episode, I consider them to be forefathers and are foundational in terms of their inspiration to other artists; like Soul II Soul, Chuck D, Giles Peterson's contributions. We have such a rich history here in the UK and I kind of feel like anytime there's an opportunity to shine a light on that history, that's always good, do you know what I mean? Because it just puts people on, it makes people aware of how much of a contribution that we've made. That's why the episode is called Pioneers, because these guys really are pioneers in terms of their contribution to the landscape of UK music, so yeah, I feel like hopefully people will see the series and it will spur people to have other ideas about other artists that haven't necessarily had a shine or the spotlight on them. We have other pockets of London or the UK that have given birth to a scene or a movement, you know.”
As director, how do you balance in terms of respectfully doing justice to the stories of people that were there, but then also making it engaging for people that weren't and wouldn't have had access to the scene at the time?
“I think it's just about how can you tell an informative, engaging story that doesn't necessarily feel too niche, but feels accessible so anybody can connect to it. I feel the fact that this is on Disney tells its own story, I mean, it's the Mickey Mouse company! (laughs). Yeah, global multi-billion dollar company that everybody knows and people have some sort of resonance too. That alone meant our approach to this couldn't necessarily be too muso. It was about telling these really rich stories in the most accessible ways possible. So yeah, I kind of feel like that was one of the challenges, but I think it was a good challenge to have. A lot of these artists, they're just so connected to the landscape of the UK, so I think if you approach it from that way, it's quite easy to do. If you look at artists like Stormzy, he's celebrated people like Jazzie B before. Chuck D is a pioneer and people of a certain age will know him and what he did and stuff, so I think it's just about connecting the dots and just making sure people are aware that their reference points are pretty much the same, even though they might not necessarily know the artist.”
Yeah, I mean I think the selection of artists is brilliant because it touches so many different genres, so many different sectors and so, there are many points of relation for people that like pretty much any genre of music. That's what the beauty of Camden was; it attracted all types and so the episodes really bring that across. So you've been in industry and made some amazing projects over a length of time, but what were some of the particular challenges that you faced doing Camden?
“I think one of the challenges was the fact we only had a limited amount of time to tell this story. Obviously this is a series and the episode [Pioneers] is like less than an hour, so I think to explore all of these amazing artists and their connection to Camden and the trials and tribulations of what they went through with Camden at the heart of all that. Yeah, getting all of that information across in such a short amount of time, because you could have made a feature film on this subject alone, you know… Just getting all the information and all the artists into the film and it not feeling like surface level, and there still being a depth and the viewer’s still able to have a connection to the artists. I think that was a challenge but yeah, hopefully we navigated it and the episode works.”
Official Camden poster - available on Disney+
Some are artists I'm already familiar with, but it gave me that element of personal story that I didn't know, so it definitely captures that. So in the film it touches on themes of inclusion, I just wanted to go into your personal story in terms of your Black British identity. How do you relate to your background and experiences being Black within the UK?
“I mean, it's just who I am, isn't it? I’ve tried to pick work that allows me to express that part of who I am. It's like, I always try and take work where there's a personal connection, whether that be music or like race or whatever. It's about how we can tell stories that don't necessarily get told and how can we have that connection to those stories. That's how I try to approach my work and through my work, I'm able to see my personality and my taste and stuff. Yeah, that comes out, I think.”
Yes, it translates really well. Because the output is only as good as the input, how do you go about selecting your team for a project like this?
“I think it's about surrounding yourself with a like-minded group of people. So people that you know share the same admiration for music, or are interested in the stories. I think it's also important to have people that are not necessarily fully aware, because I feel if everyone's on the same page all the time, then there's no space for you to challenge one another if everybody knows the story. Like this artist used to do this, and this artist connected to this, you know, your audience is not really like that, knowing a story inside out. For the series, people are coming to this information like new and fresh, and don't necessarily know Camden or that it has such a rich history. So I think diversity of thought is important, but also having people that share some of the same ideals in terms of your approach in making a really interesting film about a subject matter not many people know about. Having an amazing DP and cinematographer has been really useful. A patient editor, because you're in the edit for a long time, having good executives that give you really useful notes. We had all of those things on this project- so yeah, it went well.”
Brilliant! You touched on this slightly within your answer, but you did say you like having people that don't particularly know much about the subject because it adds a fresh perspective. Segueing into that, I personally believe that documentaries are a brilliant way of educating people, giving them access to worlds that they may not have had access to, but then also giving fresh insights to already explored topics as well. Do you feel there should be more push for documentary within educational spaces? Because also, we're moving into a digital age where people tend to learn visually.
“100% yeah! I would love to see that. I try and consume as much documentary as possible, because there's just so much out there. The landscape for documentary for a long time has been so rich and so varied in terms of the stories that are being told. I often watch something and think to myself, ‘oh my God, it'd be amazing if they could show this to kids in school’. To sort of like give them a leg up or sort of expose them to a world that they don't know about. I think that's what documentary does, the power to inform and give insight and I feel like what better place to do than in schools? Like young, ambitious developing minds, so yeah, I completely agree with you. I think they should find a way to feed documentary more into the curriculum and it not necessarily just be for a media studies course, you know. There's so many ways which you can connect the form to other disciplines, to life in general. And I think that's really important for young people. People who are growing and trying to have a POV [point of view] on the world, I think that's what documentary gives you; presents a point of view that you might not necessarily be aware of and I think that's really interesting. So yeah, I definitely agree with you.”
It caters to different learner types as well because some people are visual learners and the words on the page do not resonate with them, so it would be a great medium for them. So what brought you into documentary and what attracted you to it in terms of the art form?
“I actually started off as a journalist, journalism and documentary are not too far removed from one another and are pretty much the same thing in many ways. When I was younger, I kind of knew journalism wasn't a thing that I wanted to do for the rest of my life, but I was always interested in films and stories within films. I think documentary just became a natural go-to, in terms of I was always interested in watching them, but I never really thought I could like make them until later on. But it was always about this idea of story and characters; holding a mirror up to the world and documentary sort of being I guess the purest form of filmmaking, because it's real life. I mean, it's real stories, it's real characters, it's like you're documenting life. So I think I was always drawn to that because I've always been interested in that from when I was doing journalism. You spend a lot of time talking to people and trying to build rapport or relationship with them, trying to get people to tell you their point of view on something that you don't necessarily understand. And so yeah, it was me pivoting to something that just felt like a more natural fit, that's how it happened.”
This last question is a cheeky one, because when I was doing research on you, on your website it states you like chocolate cake (both laugh), so three best cakes, brands or places for it?
I used to be able to reel those off! (laughs). I make an amazing lemon drizzle cake, so lemon is definitely up there. A fudge cake, chocolate fudge cake. And I definitely would say, um, strawberry cheesecake; top 3 greatest cakes of all time.
Thank you very much, it's been great speaking to you.