Autumn - Early in the morning, sunshine and golden leaves. An elderly woman, Josephine, walks to her favourite place. On her way, she greets the squirrels, blackbirds, dogs... urbanites like her. 'We are starved of nature and beauty.' Josephine sighs. She's been taking a daily walk here for years - it's an escape from her lonely flat and the hectic universe around her. She's as much a part of the park as the cycle of the seasons that dominate the documentary.

Snow covers the ground. Excited children with their mothers watch the Christmas lights being switched on. The park is transformed into a fantasy playground full of snowmen and snowball fights. The atmosphere is full of the happy sounds of Christmas. But it lasts for only an hour and then the children's laughter drifts away, silence descends, and the Park awaits it's next colonisers. But they're already there under the trees, teenagers quietly rapping to each other, waiting to light up a joint.

Josephine puts up with the other groups that inhabit her Park but she doesn't mix with them. She disapproves of the rowdy hooded teenagers, doesn't mix with the young mums in the playground and has no time for the other aimless 'others' who populate the place; 'It's a degenerate society. Man has never been civilised.' But like any mother of the house she takes it upon herself to berate the park gardeners and sweepers for not doing their jobs properly; 'only the Queen talks about duty, you never hear anyone else nowadays...'

A teenager turns to a group of drunks. She hurls abuse at them. The men ignore her. For so many who use the park, it's their last refuge, home, and all they have in the world. It's full of society's dispossessed. Gerry sits on a bench with a can of beer. 'The Park is for everyone.' He says. Gerry's face is weathered, the face of an alcoholic that has spent years on park benches. Here and there are other drunks, also on hard times, with nowhere to go. 'We are like a family. We look after each other'. They're ordinary men who happened to lose out in life; 'you must remember a majority of us here, have had houses, had wives, had kids, the whole lot and we lost everything.'

It's getting dark. A group of teenagers with bikes, hoodies and mobile phones glued to their ears are hanging out. 'It's easy to commit crimes here'. Ben tells us 'There's like 5 different routes to escape from' His friend tells him to shut up, not to give away the secrets. 'Now it's half term. So we're like basically here every night. That's ghetto life'. Bradley is a street-wise 17 year-old. While keeping an eye on the younger boys, he shares his hopes of one day becoming a professional football player. He points to the empty football pitch whose floodlights are never switched on. 'It's just dead in here. It's dead, it's dead, it's dead.'

Josephine is heading back to her flat. Spring is on the way, the park sparkles, the trees no longer denuded. Josephine doesn't want to leave; 'Once I get to the exit I'm in the awful jungle, aren't I? The concrete jungle'. Sitting on his bench, George is happy because the warmer weather means children come out to play. 'You know what's going to be really good now, you can watch all the children, playing, enjoying life you know. This is life, pure life.'

Parks are where modern society exposes its underbelly to the elements. Through the eyes of the people who go there every day, the quiet alleys and secluded nooks of a North London park open up before our eyes to reveal a world remote from the hum of normal city life. This unusual and emotional film is without doubt a crafted labour of love, full of intimacy, humour and insight.

As the seasons come and go the park changes little. Its inhabitants, reliably come and go,year after year. They don't change either. It's a part of the modern urban beat but like a foreign jungle full of wildlife - it's not often that we look at exactly what makes our local park tick. A powerful comment on modern life.

JUSTINE GORDON_SMITH - Producer, director, camera.

Nominated for International Film Guide Innovation Award, East End Film Festival 2008
Nominated for Best London Film Award, Portobello Film Festvial 2008