Daisy-May Hudson’s seamlessly transitions from documentary filmmaker to narrative storyteller with her Parkville Pictures produced feature Lollipop – made with BBC FIlm and the BFI – a visceral exploration of the British child protection system through the lens of maternal experience. Drawing from her BAFTA Breakthrough experience and the profound impact of her documentary Half Way, Hudson crafts a story that inhabits complex grey spaces where real human drama unfolds. Hudson’s documentary background informs every frame, creating an authenticity that extends beyond surface-level social realism, incorporating women with lived experience of the prison system, women who she was inspired by in the making of her documentary Holloway – co-directed with Sophie Compton and which we were fortunate enough to speak to them about during last year’s London Film Festival – and enlisting a family lawyer as both script advisor and performer, ensuring genuine representation. Lollipop demonstrates Hudson’s evolution as a filmmaker who understands that systemic critique requires nuanced character work. Rather than demonising social workers or idealising mothers, Lollipop acknowledges the shared humanity binding all participants in a broken, byzantine system. The film’s June release in UK Cinemas promises to continue Hudson’s mission of creating transformative viewing experiences that validate overlooked experiences while challenging audiences to confront uncomfortable truths about institutional care and community responsibility. Before she hit the road for her Q&A cinema tour, we caught up with Hudson to learn about the extensive research she undertook to ensure she accurately portrayed everyone in the system rather than presenting pat ‘goodies and baddies’, the deep on screen connection that came from casting actors Posy Sterling and Idil Ahmed, and why she sees film production as a metaphor for life.
[The following interview is also available to watch at the end of this article.]
Daisy-May, it’s lovely to have you back on DN. When will audiences be able to watch Lollipop and how have the reactions been so far?
Lollipop comes out in UK cinemas on the 13th of June with a little tour and accompanying Q&As. I’ve seen it play a few times with audiences, and the way that it lands blows me away every time. There are always hugs and lots of tears – good tears that maybe needed to have been expressed for a while and always deep conversations and moments of connection. I love playing in front of an audience and being able to feel it myself.
Loads of single mums were air-punching at the end of Q&As because they felt seen, heard, and witnessed in a way that they hadn’t experienced before on screen.
I was watching your documentary Half Way, which I know was a big influence on Lollipop.
Half Way is about me and my family being made homeless in 2013. I’d never thought about making a film before, but my friend suggested filming it. I felt really powerless – when you’re going through these systems, you feel invisible, like you don’t have a voice – so I just started filming it. I filmed every day in the hostel for a year until we got rehoused, and through that process, I saw how empowered I felt to be able to take ownership over my own story. When it played in screenings, loads of single mums were air-punching at the end of Q&As because they felt seen, heard, and witnessed in a way that they hadn’t experienced before on screen. That was my motivation when I was thinking about Lollipop’s audiences, who am I making it for? It’s for those women who suddenly feel seen for the first time.
How did you make the move from documentary to narrative filmmaking?
After getting BAFTA Breakthrough, I met Olivier Kaempfer and Cecilia Frugiuele, who attended a screening of Half Way. They came up to me and said, “Have you ever thought about writing anything before?” I never had, it wasn’t on my radar, but I knew that there was this story of women who were having their children removed. I met these incredible women at a protest outside the Houses of Parliament, holding placards about the separation between mothers and children through social services. I don’t believe in putting women on screen as victims, and at the time they were in the middle of their traumatic experience, still going through the family courts where there’s a lot of secrecy and you’re not allowed to put things on film to protect the children. I felt like I could write these women as they are, but with humour and bits of my own story in it as well. Lollipop really is a collective of lots of different women’s voices.
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Tell us about your research process.
I have a documentary approach to filmmaking in that I do loads of research. I want to speak to as many people as possible. I want it to feel as authentic as possible. A friend of mine, Amelia Rose, had her children removed, and she became an advisor on the script. I really wanted to get a sense of how it feels to walk into a meeting with social services. Where are you looking? What’s your attention on? How can we then weave that into production design and build a very immersive perspective of a woman going through that process?
I really wanted to get a sense of how it feels to walk into a meeting with social services.
I’m immediately reminded of the scene where she walks into that room full of faces staring up at her. I can’t even imagine how terrifying that is.
It was really important for me that there are no baddies or goodies, because going through various parts of the system myself, I saw people go into a profession wanting to do their best, but they’re between a rock and a hard place because of the rules of the system. They can’t speak out because of how it might impact them. I think a lot of society is founded on this duality of good, bad, right, and wrong. I think there’s a lot more space for connection in the in-between. When I was casting it was really important for me that there was a lot of mirroring between Molly and the other women who she meets, because I think that could lend a lot more compassion and unite this space that sometimes you’re just one decision away – one thing a teacher says to you, one school away from being on either side of the table, whether you’re the judge or the person being sent to prison. I think it’s really important that we acknowledge this shared humanity.
There are women within the film who come from lived experiences of the places and the themes that we talk about in the film. I wanted them to, first of all, naturally lend compassion because they know what it’s like, and secondly, there’s a really powerful experience of alchemy when we take our pain and turn it into something beautiful just by creatively telling our story and weaving all of that together. Suddenly, something that caused us suffering can be medicine for so many other people. That was a big intention for Lollipop.
I know a lot of it comes from lived experience and research, but I was also so impressed by your representation of the bureaucracy of these systems.
I had a family lawyer as a script advisor, and she ended up playing one of the social workers, Sherma Polidore-Perrins. She was amazing, talking me through the authenticity of the language and how things are portrayed. I spoke to a judge who lent his version of how he might summarise a case and what kind of things he’s looking for. I spoke to a lot of women who were going through the system. I spoke to social workers. It was so important for me that everyone in this system would watch it and see how accurate it was, and that it’s not from a biased perspective of the mother, even though her story, which represents so many other women’s stories, is so important.
I think the film is an invitation, particularly at the end, asking what do we want from society?
Again, I don’t want to point out a baddie, but I want to say, regardless of everyone’s intentions, this system doesn’t work. I don’t have the answer because I don’t work in the sector. I think the film is an invitation, particularly at the end, asking what do we want from society? We want somewhere that makes us feel safe. We want somewhere that’s rooted in community and in love, and for me, that’s what we need to come back to each time.
I love the power of Molly and Amina and the strength in their friendship.
There’s so much power in women coming together. I come from a shamanic practice and I hold women’s circles, and there’s something so beautiful when a woman sees another woman and says, “I fully accept you.” That is completely transformational and it’s so healing. There’s so much mirroring between Molly and Amina’s experiences. They come from very different life experiences, but ultimately, they’re very similar and they hold each other in so much love. Molly is coming out of survival mode – I’ve experienced it myself – and when you’re just trying to survive, you’re very reactive to everything that’s in front of you because that’s the only way that you know how to manage. When she meets Amina, it’s the first time she’s offered a safe space where she can begin to put down her guard. And Amina feels seen by Molly, she is valued beyond just being a mum, she’s a whole person, which happens when we create safe spaces, whether that’s in friendships or in society. Magical things really can happen because it’s the first time where you can put down your walls and connect.
In the casting process, we had a chemistry read between the actresses Posy Sterling and Idil Ahmed, and as soon as they walked in the room, they connected so deeply and saw each other for who they were. We improvised a party scene and they both put on 21 Seconds and rapped every word and danced so hard, which is what Lollipop’s about. How do we find these huge, profound moments of joy within life? Because that’s what real life is like; one minute you’re laughing, one minute you’re crying. I think sometimes the deeper we allow ourselves to feel grief, the deeper we can actually feel joy. That is what motivates me to write and to make films which show this full spectrum of emotion and humanity.
I know when you were making Lollipop, you were also making your documentary Holloway, which is about the circle of sisterhood and the strength that women find together. Did they influence each other at all?
When co-directing our feature documentary with Sophie Compton, which is coming out in cinemas from June 20th, I met the incredible Lady Unchained, Aliyah Ali, Mandy Ogunmokun, Tamara Mujanay, and Sarah Cassidy, who were inspiring, courageous, full of love and hope and doing brilliant things out in their communities for other women through organizations or in their own lives, driven by their lived experience of time in Holloway. I asked if they’d like to try acting and we did a few auditions, and they all just nailed it with so much compassion and depth of understanding for the roles—and the women they were representing. It was a privilege to have them act in Lollipop, rooted in truth, empowerment, and passion for change — as we see them speak about in Holloway. I have felt the power of alchemy in storytelling, and all of us in our own ways were contributing to that. Taking things that caused us pain and turning them into our power and medicine for other women, both across Lollipop, Holloway, and in our own lives.
I have felt the power of alchemy in storytelling, and all of us in our own ways were contributing to that.
Talking about incredible women, Posy Sterling blew me away!
It was really important for me to stay open because I knew that I’d written these characters, but I wanted the casting process to surprise me. I think you’re always co-creating with life and the universe, and I wanted to stay as open to who walked through the door. But as soon as Posy came in, I had a gut feeling she was perfect. Posy and Molly both have this unbelievable energy to their bodies — they’re really, really present and have lioness spirits. In the casting process, I’d always talk about the joyometer and how much joy does someone make me feel. Even within the hardship, can they still reach these places of deep and profound joy? Posy just had so much humour and lightness and love. We developed an amazing working relationship with a lot of trust, and we managed to develop a shorthand — we wouldn’t even need to speak, but we’d know.
There’s so much unpredictability when you’re making a film. You think you’ve got control, but you’ve got zero control. I feel like film is an amazing metaphor for life. You will turn up on set and something didn’t arrive, someone is ill, your location’s gone, and I think the more that you can surrender control leaves more space for magic to happen.
I’d love to touch on your change in pace. From the moment she takes her kids away, your camera work really changed and my heart was in my throat.
When working with my cinematographer, Jaime Ackroyd, we both wanted it to feel like the camera is right there with Molly on every step of the journey. Then when Lee McKarkiel, our editor, came on, there was a beautiful working synergy together. There were so many times where we’d shot it in a certain way, but then we’d get into the edit and we’d realise we just didn’t want to cut. It should feel so intense that you want to get away, but you’re just still with her because Molly doesn’t get a chance to leave. Then we worked with our incredible sound designer, Chad Orororo, and really played with this intensity. You’re basically watching her make this decision in real time.
I wanted the audience to feel exactly what Molly was feeling at every point. Even to the point where it’s unbearable. Where you think you’re going to break.
You don’t shy away from making us feel uncomfortable.
I got into documentary in the first place because you can literally say, “This is how I’m feeling,” and you can communicate it directly to an audience. I don’t come from film school, and I didn’t grow up coming through the ranks; all I can go on is my feelings and my gut and how things make me feel. I wanted the audience to feel exactly what Molly was feeling at every point. Even to the point where it’s unbearable. Where you think you’re going to break.
So, you have both Lollipop and Holloway heading to cinema’s this month, what are you doing next?
Great question. After Lollipop, I pitched another feature to Parkville, who I made Lollipop with, and BBC Films. We’re now in development for my next scripted feature, which is really cool and exciting. I feel really driven by truth and the messages of my heart, and I don’t really know what they are in the future, but I love science fiction and I love fantasy. I want to make films that make people feel deeply.
