About the Project
Billy Dosanjh has produced cinematic moving-image works and heritage-based photographs reimagining local South Asian narratives — stories of labour, migration, and resilience that shaped the Black Country.
The project drew on the lives and stories of communities in Caldmore and executed its productions on the streets of The Butts, transforming familiar terraced rows into fully realised 1960s environments. The exhibition features the film series alongside photographs, selected sequences, and an extraordinary collection of period props and costumes.
Each image undergoes meticulous preparation, involving deep consultations and an estimated timeframe of 3–4 days per image.
Reimagining Industrial Migratory Stories CIC (Billy is Founder & Creative Director) has been awarded a £100,000 grant by The National Lottery Heritage Fund to produce this work.
From the Production
Shooting in the Snow
In January 2026, the streets of The Butts in Walsall were transformed into a fully realised 1960s environment. Then the snow came, and kept falling. These images document the shoot across its extraordinary final night and the days of preparation that made it possible.
The Film Series
Three Cantos
The moving-image works at the heart of Paths You Walk — three cinematic cantos reimagining South Asian migration to the Black Country in the 1960s.
Canto I: Ambush
Artist Film · 2026
Lush, painterly visuals transport the viewer to a world between memory and myth. The first canto of the Heritage Lottery Fund commission reimagining South Asian migration to 1960s Walsall.
Canto 2: After the Storms
Artist Film · 2026
A terraced street transformed into a fully realised 1960s world. Period interiors, vintage props, and intimate domestic scenes that honour the stories of early migrant families settling in the Black Country.
Canto 3: Oh Walsall
Artist Film · 2026
Stories of labour, resilience, and community. From the hum of textile mills to the quiet of terraced streets, a love letter to the working people who built a new life in the industrial heartland.
Production
Building the Set
The Butts, Walsall was dressed with period props, signage, and vehicles — transforming a residential street into a fully realised 1960s world.
The Cast
Cast Interviews
Conversations with the cast of Paths You Walk, filmed on location during the January 2026 shoot on The Butts, Walsall.
Partners
