South London director pays homage to his murdered cousin through film

By Ryan Hogg

A South London director has premiered a documentary about his murdered cousin.

Louis Annan Gladstone, a PhD student at London South Bank University, and his directorial partner Myles Laurent-Smart’s film The Andre Brent Documentary, debuted at the university’s Keyworth Centre on December 1.

Mr Gladstone’s cousin Andre Brent was killed outside a nightclub in Maidstone, Kent at the age of 21 on August 25, 2019.

He wanted the documentary to be a tribute to Mr Brent, who he described as full of love and energy.

Mr Gladstone, who also narrated the documentary, said: “Andre was very energetic, always full of beans.

“He was determined, full of life. His presence is really missed, because when you walked into the house you knew he was there.

“And despite being the youngest he always wanted to put everyone else before himself.”

The film, hosted by EquiNet, follows the events and aftermath of Mr Brent’s death, and the impact it had on his family, and the impact of knife crime on so many other families.

While knife crime fell in London during Covid-19 lockdowns, there were 15,601 incidents involving knives or sharp instruments in the city in 2019/20, and 10,363 in 2020/21.

In 2020/21, there were 516 knife crime offences in the South London borough of Southwark alone.

As well as commemorating Mr Brent, Mr Gladstone also hopes this documentary will help the audience see the faces behind these statistics, and inspire young people to reassess their options and stop a cycle of revenge killings.

He said: “I’ve lost friends, I’ve lost school friends and this was my first family member.

“We were always brought up being told ‘if you get hit, you hit back.

“I wanted young people to take action in a new way rather than going down the revenge route.”

Mr Brent fell out of the education system in his teens before eventually returning to study Business with Finance at London South Bank University – the same university as Mr Gladstone.

He was entering his final year at university before he was killed.

Vasilios Ofogeli, who was 16 at the time, was convicted of Mr Bent’s murder and jailed for at least 20 years.