Description: A casual portrait of a family and their experience with squatting and unstable housing in the North west London area, shot in the bed and breakfast six weeks after their arrival in 1974. The Fantasy Factory video, led by John “Hoppy” Hopkins and Sue Hall, features informal interviews with the family, alongside some incidental sound, coming from a television in the background, and uses a handheld camera set up. The video starts by partially revealing parts of the room, before recording the mother, Maureen, and her pre-adolescent children, Matthew and Melissa, all sitting on a bunk bed, with this space being the predominant focal point of the video, before revealing a second bed, sink, and other minimal appliances.

As the video progresses, the camera’s position changes, with the filmmaker standing at the corner of the room, focusing on Maureen, and Melissa and Matthew, interchangeably. The movement of the camera also exposes the small and inadequate nature of the room, which Maureen says you could “liken to a tent, which wouldn’t be bad if you had all of that open space around you when you open the door” and Sue says could only be “10 feet by 11 feet, with a sloped ceiling”. Maureen goes on to discuss the current state of renting in London, her wanting to remain near her community in North west London, the emotional impacts of living in a small space, and the realities of living in transient accommodation.

The last nine minutes of the video features an interview with Maureen, taking place two months after the meeting at the bed-and-breakfast. The camera’s focus feels more direct, being relatively still, with a montage of alternate close-ups on Maureen and the interviewer as they speak. At this time, Maureen emphasises their experience squatting at a previous address in St Leonard’s Square in the Kentish Town area, among 35 owned properties, where a “pressure cooking effect,” as she calls it, arose in the form of disapproval from permanent residents and clashes between the two. At the end of the video, Maureen weighs up her options: seeking advice from Student Community Housing or returning to squatting.

A casual portrait of a family and their experience with squatting and unstable housing in the North west London area, shot in the bed and breakfast six weeks after their arrival in 1974. The Fantasy Factory video, led by John “Hoppy” Hopkins and Sue Hall, features informal interviews with the family, alongside some incidental sound, coming from a television in the background, and uses a handheld camera set up. The video starts by partially revealing parts of the room, before recording the mother, Maureen, and her pre-adolescent children, Matthew and Melissa, all sitting on a bunk bed, with this space being the predominant focal point of the video, before revealing a second bed, sink, and other minimal appliances.

As the video progresses, the camera’s position changes, with the filmmaker standing at the corner of the room, focusing on Maureen, and Melissa and Matthew, interchangeably. The movement of the camera also exposes the small and inadequate nature of the room, which Maureen says you could “liken to a tent, which wouldn’t be bad if you had all of that open space around you when you open the door” and Sue says could only be “10 feet by 11 feet, with a sloped ceiling”. Maureen goes on to discuss the current state of renting in London, her wanting to remain near her community in North west London, the emotional impacts of living in a small space, and the realities of living in transient accommodation.

The last nine minutes of the video features an interview with Maureen, taking place two months after the meeting at the bed-and-breakfast. The camera’s focus feels more direct, being relatively still, with a montage of alternate close-ups on Maureen and the interviewer as they speak. At this time, Maureen emphasises their experience squatting at a previous address in St Leonard’s Square in the Kentish Town area, among 35 owned properties, where a “pressure cooking effect,” as she calls it, arose in the form of disapproval from permanent residents and clashes between the two. At the end of the video, Maureen weighs up her options: seeking advice from Student Community Housing or returning to squatting.