Lollipop can't be licked for its authentic portrayal of poverty

Ten years ago I was at a preview screening at the British Film Institute (BFI) of short films shot and set in London, writes Victoria Mapplebeck, Professor in Digital Arts at Royal Holloway University of London.

- Victoria Mapplebeck

My smartphone-filmed short, 160 Characters, was part of the programme and told the story of me raising my son Jim alone.

I was excited to have my film included, but by the end of the night I was a little less euphoric. I was one of only a handful of women directors screening work that night and almost every film in the programme was set on a council estate, featuring one-dimensional characters who were either mad, bad or sad.

At the post-screening drinks, I met some of the male directors who'd written and directed those films. Several of them had put between £20,000 and £40,000 of their own money into their productions, hoping their short would be the calling card to their first feature. Having a "day job" was not a concept they seemed to have come across.

Flash forward a decade and I'm at a Reclaim The Frame preview screening of Daisy May Hudson's feature drama Lollipop, watching her receive a standing ovation from an audience who - like me - were bowled over by the authenticity and power of her storytelling.

Lollipop is a BBC Films-funded feature drama which tells the story of Molly (Posy Sterling), recently out of a prison after serving a four-month sentence. She comes out to find she has lost her council housing and custody of her kids. Molly finds herself in the mother of all catch-22s: she can't get housing because she doesn't have her kids living with her, but she can't get them back without a roof over her head.