Carpenter State

Focus E15

Dorothy Allen Pickard has produced a short documentary about the mothers evicted from the Focus E15 hostel who occupied the Carpenter Estate in Stratford this September in a fight against evictions, to stay in London and for housing for all.

“Social cleansing,” as they put it, is an increasing threat affecting the UK’s poorest and most vulnerable. The film interviews three women who lived in the hostel for young homeless mothers, which was closed down over the course of the past year. Their protest continues today as they continue to achieve real successes, such as the prospective rehabilitation of hundreds of families in Stratford’s Carpenter’s Estate, where this film is shot. Their responses are emotionally engaging and yet retain all the power of clear, cutting political rhetoric.