Sheffield DocFest: How to Get Filthy Rich With Gary Stevenson

Photography by Laure Divisia

Gary Stevenson is one of the best known economics YouTubers in the UK, with around 1.5 million subscribers and more than 180 million views. He’s one of the most prominent advocates for wealth taxes in the country, particularly among younger audiences. Beyond that, he’s not what you’d call a household name. The premiere of his new documentary at Sheffield DocFest shows his intention to change that.

The Lyceum felt a somewhat appropriate venue for the screening – the beautifully ornate theatre mirroring the opulent lifestyles of many of those featured in the documentary, and quite the contrast to Gary’s ‘No Place For Poverty’ t-shirt and black tracky bottoms as he steps out on stage for a quick intro before the lights go down and the documentary begins.

‘How to Get Filthy Rich With Gary Stevenson’ is a provocative title. It’s not meant as a literal user guide; Gary’s not about to spill the beans and tell us how to win big on the stock market. It’s there to illustrate just how dirty a business becoming – or indeed being born – supremely wealthy can be, and just how impossibly out of reach it remains for the overwhelming majority of us.

Having made his own fortune during his career in finance, Gary has now chosen to dedicate his time to understanding and highlighting the economic forces he believes are causing more and more people to be left behind. For his social media followers, and for those who’ve read his bestselling memoir – The Trading Game – Gary’s mantra “tax wealth not work” will be very familiar. They’ll also know all about his meteoric rise from working class Ilford kid to CitiBank’s most profitable trader, and how he became a millionaire by his mid-twenties, but the story is retold here for newcomers.

In the documentary – presented in collaboration with Festival of Debate – the trader-turned-campaigner travels across Britain to explore the growing gap between rich and poor, meeting people whose lives have been shaped by rising inequality, as well as the multi-millionaires and billionaires at the other end of the economic spectrum.

We hear from economists, financiers, public sector workers and people from all walks of life, including the eccentric Francis Fulford of ‘The F***ing Fulfords’ fame, who injects the documentary with some levity along with a truly breathtaking lack of self-awareness. Gary engages in passionate debates with his critics – including a visibly defensive tax lawyer – and listens to those who share his concerns and support his ideas for change.

Running through the core of the film is Gary’s unwavering belief that the UK needs a fairer economic system, urging the very richest in society to contribute through a wealth tax designed specifically to tackle deepening inequality. It’s hammered home time and time again – inequality is getting steadily worse, and if we don’t increase taxes on the super rich it will continue to grow, widening the fractures within communities and leaving them exposed to rampant political opportunism.

It’s a compelling watch – a thought-provoking, timely and deeply human documentary that shines a light on one of the defining challenges of our age. There’s a moment when Gary tears up as he listens to a frontline worker list all the ways that service cuts have affected people. It’s there to remind us that he really cares about what’s happening to this country.

Like how wealthy investors buying up property continues to make house prices and rents rise faster than wages, forcing people to live in vans or move back in with their parents. Or how working people are increasingly unable to afford to pay their energy bills, and have to decide between heating their homes or filling their cupboards. Or how – when money accumulates at the top – consumer spending weakens, resulting in slower economic growth overall.

And although he could easily spend the rest of his life sipping cocktails on a beach somewhere, Gary wants to remind us he’s chosen instead to dedicate himself to this cause. He returned to higher education to understand why the economic trends that made him rich were happening, and why the money continues to flow in one direction. He made his fortune correctly betting on the economy getting worse, so he knows a thing or two about predicting patterns on a national scale – it’s clearly a very real force that’s driving him to act.

The simple, no-frills approach to the filmmaking suits the subject matter to a tee – there’s no room for distraction when the message is so urgent. More importantly, it’s incredibly watchable and very easy to digest, and should hopefully reach a much wider audience when it airs on Channel 4 later this summer.

As the screening finished, the crowd erupted into thunderous applause.

During the subsequent live Q&A with journalist Krishnan Guru-Murthy, Gary was on top form as his fiery, eloquent self. You could feel his exasperation as he remarked how unhappy the billionaires he met during the making of the documentary were; how one with a penthouse overlooking Hyde Park has never even stepped foot in it. On stage or screen, he has a knack for connecting with his audience; he convinces you to feel his frustration, and share in his fear for the future and his desire for meaningful change.

Gary signs off by wishing us all luck. He knows we need it.