Film

I’m inspired by dramatic tales of the first days. In reimagining these pasts, I ask questions about identity and belonging, and try to tap into the fresh feelings of new settlers today.

My first film, Beauty Queen, was about race riots in Birmingham in 2005. Since then, my personal work has remained focused on diaspora subcultures in Birmingham and the Black Country and seeks ever more ambitious visual modes.

Year Zero: Black Country and 1965 were part of a group show “Kaleidoscope” at Somerset House. Indi was featured as part of my solo exhibition at the NAE in Nottingham. More information about the exhibition can be found here.

Indi

Set in the mid '90's Indi charts the world of emigre mother, Sheeru, and her British born son Indi, who dreams of playing professional football.

Flamin' commission - Film London.

Year Zero: Black Country

Cine essay film using found footage, recorded anecdotes, fictional diaries and offcuts from newsreel archive to evoke the 60s in the Black Country, when thousands of illiterate immigrants came to work and build new lives.

“A lovely, tender film that uses archive footage to create a portrait of the lives and struggles of those immigrants from the Indian subcontinent who came to the industrial heartland of England in the 60s and 70s'' Stuart Jeffries, The Guardian

Nominee ‘Derek Jarman Artist Film Award ’

Screened at numerous festivals and cinemas including Flatpack and Black Country Echoes.

A Miracle in West Brom

In part a memoir film that explores the redemption of my family after recent crises, which has deeply moved audiences wherever it’s shown.

"The judges admired this film maker for telling such a thoughtful & personal story; it was a fine balance of personal reflection and journalism, told with honesty, restraint and respect”.

Nominee ‘Best Newcomer’ Grierson Awards

Winner Satyajit Ray Award

Screened at numerous festivals and cinemas.

Heaven-Hell

Artist film using as stimulus letters written home by South Asian women newly arrived in Smethwick in the 1960s.

Shot on location at Black Country Living Museum, my family home in West Bromwich, and along canals in Smethwick.

Funded by Arts Council, Creative Black Country, NAE and Flatpack (2016)

1965

Home super 8 footage of the Punjab, India and the Black Country, England, chronicling the journey of one family.

Music is Fever to the Form, by Nick Mulvey

Punjab Gardens

In Smethwick in the Black Country retired South Asians focus on their small plots of land, reimagining the farms they left behind in India

Made for Ridley Scott Associates for viral campaign on Life in a Day

Making of "The Exiles - Dayshift"

Dayshift is the first image in the Exiles series of stills bringing the 1960s to life in Sandwell, England.

England Their England

Series of sketched scenes as part of research work for Year Zero Black Country

3 Weeks Clean

An experimental film inspired by the poetry of Smethwick spoken word artist Polar Bear.