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In Sydney in the mid-1950s, a housing shortage forces large families to live in dilapidated houses and single rooms in run-down tenement flats. Leonard Teale’s voice-over narration emphasises both the physical and psychological impact of living in such conditions and argues for the right of people to have a home they can be proud of.
Curator’s notes
By starting with a depiction of the most severe and overcrowded conditions, the filmmakers build empathy among viewers so they will support the call to action that concludes the film. The deliberate focus on children echoes the work of the Realist Film Unit, whose Beautiful Melbourne (1947) also drew attention to poor postwar inner-city housing.
