sound system culture on film with kedar williams-stirling and miles barrow
The actors–filmmakers on their debut short film vibrations
Executive Producer Miles Barrow and Writer/Director Kedar Williams-Sterling
For actors and filmmakers Kedar Williams-Stirling (Sex Education, Wolfblood) and Miles Barrow (Tetris, The Peripheral), there simply aren’t enough films that showcase the sound system culture they know and love. From sixties reggae to today’s dub and rave culture, the duo are intent on exploring these vibrant music scenes through their cinematic work. “We grew up around that world, and we want to show the richness and quality of that community,” Barrow says.
Originally intended as a feature film, but later adapted to a short, Vibrations is their first – highly successful – attempt at bringing this beloved music culture to the big screen. The film is available to watch now on Minute Shorts.
Split into two parts, we open on a sixties house party where a predominantly Black crowd is enjoying the reggae music booming through the speakers. There’s a real sense of community – people are greeting each other, dancing together, catching up. In the second half of the film, we follow the story of one of the party’s attendees, now a much older man, as he drives through the city with his grandson. They’re clearly close, discussing music and culture, sharing jokes and a love of reggae. Like the music scene, Barrow and Williams-Stirling explain that they wanted to spotlight this grandfather-grandson relationship as another on-screen rarity.
Vibrations captures not just the culture created around the music itself, but how it fostered, and still fosters, a deep-rooted sense of community, especially for Black people in 1960s Britain. It is filled with heart and soul, and pays true homage to a seldom explored culture within cinema.
Williams-Sterling and Barrow speak in more depth to Managing Editor of Short Stuff, Molly Lipson, about their film, and delve into their experience working together as old friends, what they learnt in the process of making the short, and what short film means to them.
Molly Lipson: How did you two start working together and what’s that been like?
Kedar Williams-Sterling: We've known each other for so long, Miles is one of my earliest best friends. We’ve always been into the same things, whether it's skating or music. One time we were on the bus discussing what we’d call a pub if we ever bought one, but we’d also both been performing and doing theatre for a while and so it made more sense for us to build a production company. And it’s been alright so far!
Miles Barrow: That familiarity we have and the understanding between us means we’re never stepping on each other’s toes. Nothing's ever personal because we know each other so well. We were writing together recently and we sort of knew what the other person was going to write, what the next sentence would be. It’s this weird alchemy that I can only put down to years of friendship, or not even just friendship – he’s like a brother really. I think that's quite rare when it comes to writing and creating, and it just all made sense for us. It's been fun so far, no hiccups. Yet…
ML: The film was self-funded – how and why did you decide to make it that way?
KWS: It was an investment what we did…a bit of a mad ting…! As an actor, you kind of get negated in the creative conversation and you don’t tend to get brought in until late down the line, so you don't know exactly how things get made. When you see the way funding works, yes, there are other ways to do it, but we thought if we want to just get this made, we need to pay for it ourselves. Money dictates so much in this world and I’m glad we invested in our passion.
ML: Let’s dive into the themes of the film. What was your focus and what did you want to say with this film?
KWS: We’ve very interested in mental health, truth and community, and it’s those three themes we touch on in this film and our next one. In the feature length version of Vibrations, you see more of the grandfather’s generational journey and you have an understanding of maybe why he made the choices that he did. There’s this other side of the story where the brother of his grandson who we see in the short version has committed suicide, and their mum has to leave the house after that. It’s about understanding what holding secrets does to you, and what you think you're protecting. Especially when it comes to men, I think there's a lack of vulnerability, sometimes generationally, and also demographically in the Caribbean community, like there’s the stiff upper lip in British culture as well.
ML: Obviously music is key in the film as well. Can you talk a bit more about that?
MB: I think the threads, musically as well as emotionally, work in tandem with each other. There’s the emotional, generational trauma that we all deal with, as well as an exploration of how that sound culture affected and helped a community. The broader picture of music in general, throughout pop culture and musical culture, a lot of it stems from the inspiration of these blues parties, Caribbean music and bass culture in general.
ML: This was your first filmmaking project – what advice would you give to people at the start of their short filmmaking journey?
MB: Maybe it sounds cliche, but I’d say really just trust your vision and stay true to what you want. You can get notes from so many producers, and maybe you feel like they're going to take you to the next step, so you adapt your work, but then it becomes something that it isn't or what you never thought it would be. You’ve got to really sit with yourself and just trust your instincts. On the financial side, my advice would be, patience. We were naive in thinking this was all going to happen really quickly, especially our plan to make this a feature right off the bat, and that wasn’t the case. It’s more important to build relationships and friendships with producers, crew and cast.
KWS: Yeah I’d really iterate that: find your tribe. I’m so glad me and Miles work together. You look at all these big time directors, and they've got the same team from when they first started making film, and it’s because you have that trust, you have that shorthand with each other. It's like, this is the person who gets my vision, which makes more sense than working with people that are trying to change that.
ML: So how did you find your tribe for Vibrations?
MB: We were both in stage school when we were younger so it definitely helped having lots of friends in the arts and creative industries. Our tribe was essentially people we grew up with and spent lots of time with. Luckily, everyone we asked knew us well enough and was passionate enough about the project to come on board.
KWS: We also found that when we spoke to equipment rental departments, whether it was Kodak or lighting with Panalux, they really wanted to back it because they loved the vision and they love filmmaking generally. It was great having that kind of support. It was all an experiment in a way – it was the first time we made a short, first time shooting on film, we were just like, let’s throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks, and everyone was backing it. We all just went for it.
ML: Your short is available to watch on Minute Shorts – final thoughts on the short film industry and what it means to filmmakers to have platforms like that to showcase their work?
KWS: We so appreciate the support, the love and the encouragement that spaces like Short Stuff and Minute Shorts are providing. It just feels healthy. So thank you!
MB: Short films need more recognition because they can be so powerful. There's so much to be said within them, and hopefully Short Stuff and Minute Shorts help bring more people to make short films and provide a lens to be able to do so.