Description: The film begins detailing the problem of racial harrassment in Britain in the early 1980s, particularly in Hackney. The narrator details how the borough has always been multicultural from the 12th century, followed by fiction scenes: a camera slowly zooms in on an image of a door with a translucent curtain; a brick is hurled through the glass window. The film is intercut between fictional segments, talking head interviews and clips of the local Hackney council estates with a second-person voiceover detailing the experiences of residents and still images of ‘evidence’ of racial abuse – from bodily scars to graffiti on local buildings.

Residents give interviews talking about their experiences, from being struck by a knife, to being called names. A second-person narrator gives little snippets of such experiences as a witness: “You were pushed down the staircase. The fear you and your family feel is so immense that you make sure no one goes out in the dark.”

Interviews with the Hackney Council representatives, police officers and local council officers detail the structural issues with combating racial harassment – from the lack of training for policemen who are unable to recognise racial encounters, to reports detailing how racism was found within the allocation of housing, to the delays and bureaucracy involved in dealing with such incidents.