Joshua Stocker directs a beautiful and moving promo for Guvna B's autobiographical story of injustice, Bridgeland Road. Through a series of powerful vignettes - captured in outstanding cinematography by DoPs Adam Singodia and Luke Dryden - Stocker's video provides an atmospheric visual context for the London-born rapper, author and broadcaster's reflections upon his life following an unprovoked racially motivated attack, which he reported to the police but who dropped the case four months after the incident.Spurred on by Emmy award-winning actress and writer Michaela Coel - whose voicemail appears in the track around the halfway mark - Guvna B (aka Isaac Borquaye) reveals more about the attack and its subsequent handling by the police and legal process, while the monochrome video establishes the artist's world with artistic resonance. Stocker sets the scene with well-crafted scenes of the place where the artist grew up, detailing normal daily life, lazy afternoons and meetups with friends. But then representations of the harrowing attack and its aftermath, start to intrude while Guvna's heartfelt performance becomes the heart of the video.A director and photographer with considerable experience in bringing choreography to the screen - as in his excellent Olafur Arnalds video for Zero - Joshua Stocker's uses all that experience, including movement direction of his on-screen extras, to craft the stream of images.That makes this piece, over five minutes long, a mesmerising experience.
Rob Ulitski - 6th Feb 2023