Estate, a Reverie: a film by Andrea Luka Zimmerman 2015
Distributed by Grasshopper Films, 12 East 32nd St., 4th Floor, New York, NY 10016
Produced by Fugitive Images
Directed by Andrea Luka Zimmerman
DVD, color, 83 min.
High School - General Adult
Activism, Buildings, Civil Rights, Desegregation, Destitution, Human Rights, Social Problems, Urban and Regional Planning
Date Entered: 08/11/2017
Reviewed by Brad Eden, Ph.D., Dean of Library Services, Valparaiso UniversityThis film chronicles the history of the Haggerston Estate in East London, a model of public housing when it was built in the 1930s. Decades of neglect finally brought the building down in 2014, but not after many residents had to endure dereliction and segregation for many years. The filmmaker herself had lived in the project for 17 years, and this movie interweaves personal portraits from many of its former residents, as well as historical re-enactments of their own lives in the building. Issues of race, gender, class, geography, and disability are brought to the fore in this moving documentary, which has won a number of film awards.