Britain on Film: South Asian Britain is a compelling collection of archive material that illustrates how the South Asian diaspora in the United Kingdom has so gloriously and meaningfully enriched life in this country.

Screening in the cinema for the first time, the programme weaves together footage from across the UK, touching on communities originally from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, offering incredibly rare, and valuable depictions of these lives on screen.

Britain on Film: South Asian Britain features films from around the UK and includes unusually early study of London’s multiculturalism in 1924, as well as a festival at Britain’s first mosque and the mobilisation of Indian regiments during the Second World War. There is also an Indian Independence celebration from the 1950s in Leicester; a beautiful Sikh wedding in Exeter and Asian fashion and jewellery workshops across the Midlands.

The collection also explores the hostility faced by Bangladeshi migrants the East End in the 1970s, and the heartbreak of family estrangements due to immigration policies. It documents how the second generation youth in the 1980s explored the roots of their culture through music and dance, alongside deeper questions of what it means to be a young British Asian in I am British But… one of Gurinder Chadha’s (Bend it Like Beckham) earliest works.

South Asian Britain is the sixth and final programme from Britain on Film on Tour, a partnership between the Independent Cinema Office and the British Film Institute that gives cinema audiences unprecedented access to the UK’s history through film. In 2017, Getting Together Through Films presented Britain on Film: Black Britain -from the same series- celebrating Black History Month at Town Hall Arts, Trowbridge.

The film screening presented by Town Hall Arts, has been possible with the support of BFI Film Audience Network – National Lottery with technical advice and equipment from Cinema For All.

Getting Together Through Films is a community cinema project curated by Lorena Pino that aims to build a bridge between people from around the world who live in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, and the surrounding areas, using film as a resource for a better mutual understanding. The universal power of cinema is used to speak to others about different cultures. It creates a safe environment to share ideas and is open to members of the whole community whatever their background.

Tickets are only £5 for adults and £3 for under 16s (Including a light refreshment) and are available online at trowbridgearts.com, by phone 01225 774306 or can be purchased directly at Town Hall Arts, Market Street, Trowbridge, BA14 8EQ.

The next film screening of Getting Together Through Films will be on Saturday 19 January at 2pm with Gaza Surf Club (2016) by Philip Gnadt and Mickey Yamine and a short film by local director Samiha Abdeldjebar in partnership with Bradford On Avon Friends of Palestine.