The clichéd interpretation of estates went under the microscope when a series of strikingly poignant portraits of the former residents of the Haggerston Estate were brandished in the place of the conspicuous and demoralising orange boards, initially erected by the council to dissuade unwanted squatters. A documentary film, Estate, captures a moment of imminent transition, as the estate on Regent’s Canal in Hackney is partially emptied ahead of ongoing demolition. The silent celebrities of the billboard artwork now find a previously unspoken voice.
The Haggerston Estate was conceived with the optimism of liberated inter-war welfare state ideals, ‘a prestige block’ which soon turned out to be the ‘heroin capital of Europe’- a moral story of the declining estate that has become all too familiar. Director Andrea Luka Zimmerman challenges this negative stereotype of the so-called ‘sink’ estate, by chronicling the moment between creation and destruction from the point of view of the residents. The film, shown on Tuesday night at The Screen @ RADA as part of a whole evening dedicated to estates hosted by UCL Urban Lab and Passengerfilms, challenges the problematic phrases of new developments and protective initiatives that advocate promises for a ‘vibrant and lively community’.
The film portrays exactly that, a vibrant and lively community, albeit in a moment of uncertain change and demolition. Estate captures the extraordinary everyday humanity in Haggerston; from a woman who paints decorative patterns and Yayoi Kusama-like dots in the stairwells at night ‘as a bit of sunshine in the midst of the English weather’ to a house-bound man who deems his dog to have more sense than all the governments compiled together. The next shot shows his empty flat being filled in with breeze blocks, where he’s been displaced to we don’t know. Another scene shows the animals of Hackney City Farm let loose in the courtyards and gardens of the estate, as seen in the photographs below.
This is a charming, sometimes satirical, sometimes melancholy film that aspires to reverse the misrepresented myth of failed inter-war public housing and the commonly misused lazy stereotype of the local residents.
There is another accompanying event, The Life of High Rises, on 17th May at 7.00pm at The Screen @ RADA, which will show screenings of High Rises (Gabriel Mascaro, 2009) and Lift (Marc Isaacs, 2002). For more information please see www.opencitylondon.com.
All images courtesy Estate film.