SHORT DOCUMENTARY, 5 MIN

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ROLE: Producer, director and editor 

Additional Cameras: Piers Garland, Kasia Jarco

 

 

Portobello Road Market, one of the top 10 tourist attractions in London, has become a victim of its own success. Every Saturday, 100 000 visitors visit Portobello – one of the world’s most famous antique markets – while its antique dealers are struggling for survival. Antique arcades and galleries are taken over by international brands, one after another. Everyone wants to become part of this tourist mecca – except the antique dealers themselves. Tourists usually do not purchase antiques and the dealers’ usual clients refrain from visiting Portobello Road Market due to the increasingly crowded streets. This video offers a unique opportunity to get insight into the lives of passionate dealers who have been selling their antiques here since the 1970s, far away from rich bankers and tourists taking ‘selfies’ with their smart phones. By telling this important story at this critical moment in time during which the dealers are still here, we have also been able to capture an essential part of London's cultural heritage.

A special thank you to Joe Gannon for letting me use footages from his film Getting It Straight In Notting Hill Gate (1970).