Sean McAllister Hull's Angel

Hull's Angel

"The depth of her humanity is overwhelming" [The Guardian]

Sean McAllister probes the uneasy relationship between British citizens and asylum seekers through the eyes of an unconventional family in this frank and intimate documentary.

Since losing her job at a hostel for failing to work within the Home Office's strict guidelines, 48-year-old Tina has continued to help Hull's 1,500 asylum seekers for free, dedicating much of her own time and money to aiding them.

Along with her daughter Nicola, who is married to Kurdish asylum seeker Mohammed, Tina has incurred the disapproval of her family and the frequently violent racist actions of Hull's almost exclusively white population.

In order to get by, she has been forced to compromise her strong socialist principles by signing up for work at a chicken factory through a de-unionised employment agency.

This physically demanding job and her voluntary work mean that Tina often gets as little as four hours sleep a night.

On top of all this, she finds herself in a less than rewarding relationship with a 24-year-old Kurdish asylum seeker, Khaled, who refuses to help with the housework.

So will Tina's selfless dedication to helping others ever be recognised, or is the reward of a good deed always simply the deed itself? - © Channel4

Reviews: Hull's Angel

© Sukhdev Sandhu, The Telegraph, December 14, 2002 → Films about asylum-seekers involve us looking at the world through their eyes, and in doing so, we're granted a unique perspective. Alert to the possibilities of being conned and exploited, and the need to get ahead at all times, the asylum-seeker is all eyes and ears, forced to be attentive to the shifting landscapes he traverses. Like the children in Iranian films, whose unique perspective on society he shares (both are margin-walkers - between innocent youth and canny adulthood, and between reviled foreign-ness and belated acceptance), he is alive to newness, possibility, awe. Read more

© The Guardian, 28 0ct 02 → "I looked more like Hull's slapper," Tina joked after the screening. But the depth of her humanity is overwhelming. Read more

© Rich Mills, 2002 → When I started thinking about this piece, I was originally just going to write about the evening out I had on Saturday (July 19th). I and others around me experienced the cultural diversity that Hull has to offer. A Zulu wedding, a Salsa Night in aid of Deaf Children, Déjà Vu at The Welly, my diverse bunch of mates My banging night out! However on Tuesday (July 22nd) night I watched 'Hull's Angel', a documentary made by Hull people about Hull people. It was the story of a woman from Hull who gave her time freely and willingly to help the recent additions to our ever-changing melting-pot of a city. Read more