Lived experience’s role in impactful authentic storytelling

Writers, directors, and everyone involved in the process of creating films, games and television know how important it is to make the audience feel something. But for former BAFTA Breakthrough participant Daisy-May Hudson when creating her debut fiction film Lollipop it was also about seeing how “deep” this feeling goes.

Lollipop, follows the life of a young single mum Molly, recently released from prison, trying to navigate the social care system to get her children back. Given the emotional subject matter of the film a core part of its creation involved taking a trauma informed approach to production and involving lived experience advisors. In doing so, Hudson feels she was able to explore how deeply she could help the audience feel “the experience of what that means to actually be separated from your child and what it feels like in your body.”

Alongside some of the film’s cast Hudson took part in a special BAFTA Q&A that offers us some insights into the role that lived experience has in creating an impactful and authentic story…

As a writer and director Hudson says it’s important to her to write “without blame and without judgement…even though I’m talking about the limitations of the system it was really important for me that there was no blame”.

So that’s why Hudson worked with an array of lived experience advisors to make sure there was an authenticity that showed the complexity of this kind of situation.

Hudson explains: “I worked with lived experience advisors from judges to social workers, to family lawyers, because I don’t believe people go and work in the system because they don’t care. I think they go in to try and make a change and then they’re kind of limited.

“And so that was really my intention, to kind of humanise that anybody could be on the other side of the table to Molly… to be able to show that kind of humanity and that often you are like one job, or one admission to university, or one thing a teacher says to you at school, between whether you are on this side of the table or that side of the table.”

Given the emotive focus of Lollipop Hudson felt it was vital to create a safe space for all those involved. She says: “I think that safe space was really important in terms of the cast and crew because there were various people that were resonating with the scenes of the film. I really wanted to create a space that felt safe.”

Supported by the film’s producers and BBC Films Hudson says she was able to adopt, and put into practice, a trauma informed approach – one that acknowledged that we all come with our own lived experiences.

She says: “Sometimes I think to be trauma informed is to acknowledge that we all come with a context and a story and a past regardless of whether you’re cast or crew and that’s how we relate. So sometimes someone might be acting out or might respond in a certain way but they’re not responding to the present they’re responding to the past and to be able to create a space where there’s a dialogue beyond that moment, I think was really a beautiful thing.

“It wasn’t always easy, but it was the right thing and that is what I think is really important to bring that level of transparency, accountability and care to the set.”

Hudson, whose debut project was a documentary of the year her and her family spent living in a homeless hostel, also suggests that embracing the lived experiences of ourselves and others can help us process what has happened. It’s a “process of our chemical filmmaking in which we can turn our pain into something profound or powerful for ourselves”, she explains.

The Lollipop director reflects: “I found that when I was filming my own homelessness experience I took something where I felt disempowered and invisible and by filming and being proactive I turned it into something that became medicine for other people.

“So it was always my intention [with Lollipop]… that this film is many things. But really it’s that testament or, it’s for the women who are told they’re too much, they’re too bad, they’re too wrong, they’re too emotional… and this film is their full permission to be their full self in all of their emotions and [know] that you can still be loved and accepted.”

• Lollipop is out in cinemas on Friday 13 June. Hudson and the cast were talking as part of a special Q&A at BAFTA 195 Piccadilly.

At BAFTA we are committed to supporting creative Film, Games and TV talent and one way we do this is through our Learning, Inclusion and Talent programmes. Daisy-May Hudson was a member of BAFTA’s 2015 Breakthrough cohort. Hudson’s debut feature was a documentary called Halfway that focused on her, and her family’s, experiences of living in a homeless hostel. The Breakthrough programme is BAFTA’s flagship programme showcasing and helping accelerate the careers of the next generation of film, games and TV talent. Entries for the 2025 BAFTA Breakthrough programme close on 19 June so get your applications in now.