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.
The Artworks
Photography
Large-format cinematic photographs that reimagine the streets and stories of 1960s Walsall. Each image undergoes days of meticulous preparation, deep community consultation, and full period reconstruction.
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
Behind the Scenes
The Butts, Walsall was dressed with period props, signage, and vehicles — transforming a residential street into a fully realised 1960s world.
Shooting in the Snow
Building the Set
Partners
