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Collection

South Asian Britain on Film

Discover a rich history reaching back over a century as we celebrate South Asian communities and culture across Britain.

From local news to feature film, through home movies and TV documentaries, this collection showcases South Asian Britons in front of and behind the camera. The contribution of colonial troops is illuminated through the earliest newsreels, while hardhitting current affairs programmes highlight the struggles faced in the 1960s, 1970s and beyond. Public information films produced for South Asian audiences feature alongside Hindi-language films made in Britain and interviews with prominent Asian-British figures. A bold wave of British Asian filmmaking in the 1990s is represented through early works by the likes of Gurinder Chadha and Asif Kapadia.

74 videos in this collection

Sikh Matron

  • Kinver
  • 1985

The Referee

  • 1976

Asian Pub Landlord

  • Newbridge
  • 1968
Britain's oldest mosque welcomes a vast crowd of worshippers, visitors, curious onlookers and the odd newsreel camera!

An Oriental Atmosphere Topical Budget 875-2

  • Woking
  • 1928
Mahatma Gandhi's arrival in England for the second India Round Table Conference at St James's Palace

Gandhi in England

  • 1931

Shakti

  • 1992

A Safe Place to Be

  • Spitalfields
  • 1980

Indian Businessman

  • Leicester
  • 1975
Bollywood-on-Thames: East meets West in a tale of two loves in 70s London

Pasand Apni Apni

  • London
  • 1969

Pasand Apni Apni (Trailer)

  • 1969

The Waiting Room

  • Hackney
  • 1996

Insaaf

  • 1971

Tariq Ali

  • 1968

Dilip Hiro

  • 1968

London Me Bharat (1972) India in London

  • 2017
It's twistin' time! Wander in and celebrate Trev's 21st birthday in this fly-on-the-wall film.

Trev's 21st 1963

  • Redbridge
  • 1963

Defending a Way of Life

  • 1980

Naz

  • Bradford
  • 2000
New law targets discrimination in housing and employment in this eye-opening public information film.

Race Relations Board

  • 1969

See for Yourself!

  • 1972

Leamington Spa Race Relations

  • Royal Leamington Spa
  • 1971

Pakistani Bus Driver

  • Birmingham
  • 1974

Credo[12/11/78]

  • 1978

English As a Second Language (First and Second Phase Teaching)

  • Bolton
  • 1973

Like Me

  • 1973

Benares Carpet Weaver in Exeter

  • Exeter
  • 1964

A Mosque in the Park

  • Brentford
  • 1973

Indian Bands for Wembley Topical Budget 658-1

  • 1924

For the Aga Khan's Prize Topical Budget 958-2

  • 1930

Indian Tales

  • Haringey
  • 1994

Asian Arranged Marriages

  • 1977

Arranged Marriages

  • West Bromwich
  • 1979

New Ways

  • Southall
  • 1978

Growing Day by Day

  • 1981

Skin Deep

  • London
  • 2001

The Sheep Thief

  • 1997

A New Kind of Match

  • Bradford
  • 1967

Ugandan Asians at Houndstone Camp

  • Yeovil
  • 1972

Ugandan Asians at Plasterdown Camp

  • Tavistock
  • 1972

Uganda Asians

  • 1972

Ugandan Asians at Heathfield Camp

  • Honiton
  • 1972

Exodus - Uganda

  • 1972

Out of the Darkness

  • 1972

A Sikh Wedding in Exeter

  • Exeter
  • 1971

Gaumont Graphic No. 373

  • 1914

British News No. 2

  • 1940

British News No. 53

  • 1941

Indian Classical Dance

  • 1958

Asian Fashions

  • Leicester
  • 1976
Dance, music and celebrations at the Folklore Festival

Sri Lankan Kandyan Dance Troop at Sidmouth

  • Sidmouth
  • 1980

A Love Supreme

  • 2001

Asian Jewellery

  • Smethwick
  • 1978
Young working class Londoners fight racism with the power of rock and reggae in this anarchic documentary.

Divide and Rule - Never!

  • 1978

Arts Centre

  • Edgbaston
  • 1980

Asian Community Centre

  • Wolverhampton
  • 1979

Asian Cultural Centre opens in Peterborough

  • Peterborough
  • 1980
Peterborough's Playbus offers a fun and welcoming space for ethnic minority families to improve their English language skills.

Peterborough Playbus

  • Peterborough
  • 1976

Indian 11th Republic Day Celebrations at Leicester

  • Leicester
  • 1959

Immigration Control

  • West Bromwich
  • 1978

Surviving Sabu

  • 1997
The beginning of a Mancunian tradition - could this be the first Moss Side Carnival?

Alexandra Park Pageant, 27 June 1970

  • Moss Side
  • 1970
Guru blessing - Councillors join a religious reading at the Guru Arjan Niwas Sikh Temple on Clifton Street in Exeter

Exeter Councillors' Sikh Temple Visit

  • Exeter
  • 1977

Schools for Moslems

  • Bury
  • 1980
The UK's first purpose-built mosque welcomes a huge crowd of worshippers - and newsreel cameras!

Feast of eid-ul-fitr Topical Budget 663-1

  • Woking
  • 1924
A historic occasion in Southfields as London's first mosque is officially opened.

Islam in London Topical Budget 789-1

  • Southfields
  • 1926

Indian Sweets

  • Moseley
  • 1979

No Virginity, No Nationality

  • 1981

The Indian Review - Grand March past of the Forty Indian Regiments

  • 1902

Working to a Pattern

  • 1980
An appeal to Muslims to come and work in Manchester.

Moslems in Britain - Manchester

  • Manchester
  • 1961

Moslems in Britain - Places

  • Woking
  • 1964
Perky presenter Gamal Kinnay extols the joys of industrial Cardiff, in this recruitment film designed to encourage Arab workers to come to Britain.

Moslems in Britain - Cardiff

  • Cardiff/Caerdydd
  • 1961

Ugandan Asians in Leicester

  • Leicester
  • 1972

Moslems in Britain - People

  • 1964