Synopsis

“Walsall Council had asked the newly formed Triple Vision to document their new policy of decentralisation. Triple Vision was initially formed by Flaxton, Deadman and Kez Cary. The three approached this topic with the lessons learned from Vida. So this new work was a self-consciously constructed piece of formal documentary making that bordered on fiction – a tendency which found its way into their 1982 work Circumstantial Evidence.” – Terry Flaxton

The docu-fiction examines the problems with bureaucracy in Hackney with key set pieces: a man at a piano, a young woman named Jane who cannot find anyone to speak to her at local council offices, an older woman named Nancy from Walsall who solves a gas fire issue in her home easily due to the straight-forward nature of local services in her town, to a local Hackney community group seeking to establish their own community centre in an empty council-owned property. The film exposes the problems caused by gentrification, poorly built council flats and explores how decentralisation can cut bureaucracy and distribute decision-making power to the local community.