their adult lives. returning to the estate every day. if only to buy their scratch cards from their own. formerly local shop. The asylum seekers like Angela. and Zeinaba from Somalia. used to war zones. waiting anxiously for their Leave To Remain 'papers‘ while their children learn to speak fluent Glaswegian. Heather. a homeless. unemployed single mother. and her six children under 12. moved around between ll ‘temporary homes‘ in the last couple of years. John. 40 years old. with learning difficulties. Alec. disabled and homeless. unable to walk downstairs and yet placed on the top floor of a tower block where the lifts break often. These are people who generally only register to the population as statistics: headline fodder.
‘A lot of people talk about how Sighthill became a dumping ground — if somehody's got a problem. let‘s just put them in Sighthill. And they get swallowed up by the size of the estate. They become invisible. You can‘t just leave somebody with problems like that.‘ says Carslaw. ‘The people living there have to look out for each other — someone like John. looked after by his neighbours. by the residents. What I witnessed was care in the community: unpaid-for care in the community.’
What‘s frightening about the series of stories told in The Estate. I tell her. is the way that all
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of the participants are subject to the orders of an unseen power. They are always waiting for papers. for letters. to be told where they’re going to be living in the next few months. if anywhere at all. This faceless authority doesn’t seem to have any connection to the day-to-day lives we watch it hold in limbo. unable to plan even a week into the future. as asylum seekers and residents wait to be rehoused. and Heather and her children carry on living in a deserted tower block for three weeks after the water has been switched off. waiting to hear where their next temporary house will be.
Carslaw agrees. vehemently. She was determined not to make these issues central to the films. but the depression of people kept in limbo seeps through the stories. and she is clearly. quietly. furious about it.
‘Some of these people bought their houses to live and die in. They told me there was such excitement when the buildings went up, in the 1960s. It was the first time many people had had an indoor toilet. and they couldn’t get over how shiny the lifts were. People were queuing up to live there. And then — what happened? Some of the older women said it was as though a cloud went over Sighthill. an air of neglect coming over the buildings. It became invisible. There are people like Syreta (who runs the local shop featured in Episode 15). you know. a businesswoman. who have actively come to the area and chosen to invest in it. but I don‘t think that’s how the authorities see the place. They don‘t seem to consider that Sighthill has been home to those people. is anything other than a site. And it is home. And people are actually proud to live there.’
The Estate will be screened on Channel 4, Mon-Thu from Mon 13 Jul at 7.55pm. Each short film lasts three minutes.
While all of the ‘characters’ on The Estate interweave throughout each other’s stories, there are several stand-
out individuals
Forced to leave Zimbabwe because she opposed Robert Mugabe. Sifiso has been living in Sighthill for four years. watching her children grow up with broad Glasgow accents, and worrying about their sense of
identity.
Episode 7: My Home. Airs Mon 13 Jul.
Part of a homeless family who are perpetually uprooted between the various decrepit ' temporary houses that the state finds for them. She's frighteningly bright and imaginative. even as her mother worries that being forced to move schools every few months is damaging her education.
Episode 3: Unseft/ed. Airs Wed 75 Jul.
Polish economic refugees Pawel and Magda are permanently cheery, very much in love and utterly devoted to Sighthill. They proudly show the camera round their first ever home. despite the impending demolition.
Episode 5: Our Piece of Heaven. Airs Mon 20 Jul.
9—23 Jul 2009 THE LIST 31