Ms Zimmerman, 41, is a Hackney-based artist and filmmaker. She is a local artistic legend whose projects have become some of the most talked about in the area. She is currently working on a much-anticipated feature-length film, set in a Haggerston housing estate, which will tell the story of tenants who challenged the stereotypes of those who live in notorious estates.
“I have lived in Haggerston in Hackney for twenty years now but I never realised the severity of my area’s reputation until a postman delivering my passport was too scared to enter my estate for fear of his safety. I couldn’t believe how a building’s facade could affect people’s opinion so much; I set about changing this.
“My first big project was I Am Here. It originated by interviewing people about their impressions of Haggerston Estate on the Regent’s Canal that Hackney Homes had boarded up with orange boards to prevent squatters. Their responses were shocking. They were convinced that drug dealers and squatters lived in the blocks when in fact families, the elderly and young children inhabited it.I worked with Lasse Johansson and Tristan Fennell and gathered the public’s support. We convinced the new estate managers (L&Q) to allow us to carry out a major artistic project on their block. We replaced the orange boards with photographs of the current and past resident’s faces; by humanising the façade we completely changed people’s opinions of the building. Hackney is famous for its vibrancy and multi-culturalism and we wanted to celebrate this.
“The installation of I Am Here has catalysed a communal spirit among tenants, heralding a wave of creative endeavours within the estate, communal facilities, painting, film screenings and networking groups. The project attracted huge attention from passers-by, the television cameras of the world and millions of YouTube viewers and now the silent celebrities of I am here are finally going to be heard and seen more fully in my upcoming documentary Estate.
“The documentary will mix archive material, documentary footage and imagined scenes of the future of our community, and of social housing in general. It will continue to probe the compelling questions that the artwork has raised by exploring the way others look at housing estates, confronting tabloid fantasies of these places as threatening environments, and celebrating the diversity of its residents.
“Estate is the final project in a trilogy of works on the Haggerston estate and I will be submitting it to all the big film festivals, including the renowned Sundance Film Festival. The most immensely rewarding part of the project has been working with local people and fundraising for the project myself.”
