This is a film of a number of different events and activities documenting the Bradford Ukrainian community life in 1983 and 1984. It includes the move from the club at Claremont off Great Horton Road to new premises at Westfield on Legrams Lane which included the building of a new hall and Ukrainian school; an Autumn bazaar held by the Bradford branch of the Association of Ukrainian Women in Great Britain (AUW); the 50th Anniversary of the Holodomor which included a memorial service at Great...

This is a film of a number of different events and activities documenting the Bradford Ukrainian community life in 1983 and 1984. It includes the move from the club at Claremont off Great Horton Road to new premises at Westfield on Legrams Lane which included the building of a new hall and Ukrainian school; an Autumn bazaar held by the Bradford branch of the Association of Ukrainian Women in Great Britain (AUW); the 50th Anniversary of the Holodomor which included a memorial service at Great Horton Park followed by a procession to Eastbrook Hall for a commemorative address; Veselka dance ensemble from Halifax at Llangollen ‘83 Eisteddfod; the 30th anniversary dinner dance for Bradford Ukrainian School. The film was made by the Ukrainian Video Archives Society but there is no credit to them on the film. The language of the film is a mix of English and Ukrainian. The first section of the film (dated 13 February 1983) is the launch of the Ukrainian Art 1982 exhibition at Bradford Central Library. The film begins with shots of the various exhibits which form the exhibition, including icons, books and art works which are displayed in cabinets and on display boards with explanatory captions (the caption text is not always clear), as well as the buffet which is set out for the exhibition launch. The scene then changes to the formal opening of the exhibition which is introduced by the Labour Group’s Chair of the Services sub-committee who welcomes the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress of Bradford. The mayor gives an address, thanking the exhibition for coming to Bradford which is a city of a number of ethnic communities. An address by the Chair of the Central Committee of the Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain then makes a speech thanking Bradford Central Library for putting on the exhibition. He comments that they wished to show the best of Ukrainian art but because of the Soviet situation they are only able to show what they have. He then asks Mr Parfaniuk, head of Bradford AUGB, to show the guests around the exhibition. The scene then moves to a woman wearing an embroidered Ukrainian blouse holding a copy of the exhibition catalogue entitled Ukrainian Art 1982 and leafing through the pages for the camera. The camera then moves to various close ups of the exhibits and captions. The scene changes to Wolodymyr Demtschuk facing the camera and (the sound drops out quite badly) who says that next they will interview guests to gauge their opinions of the exhibition. The interviewer speaks to various people including the Mayor, Mr Parfaniuk, head of AUGB, Mr Bell of Bradford Central Library who all talk about the significance of the exhibition and its impact for the Ukrainian community, the wider Bradford community and its work to advocate for Ukrainian arts and culture. The camera then returns to capturing detail of the exhibits and their captions. This section finishes at 27 mins 40 secs. The next section (dated 13 February 1983) starts at 27 mins 45 secs and shows a demonstration of the art of pysanky by Mrs Lajczuk. The film begins with a shot of a woman making pysanky, then quickly switches to the Wolodymyr Demtschuk, the interviewer, who introduces this next section as week two of the exhibition at Bradford Central Library and introduces Mrs Lajczuk. He asks her how long she has been making pysanky and if she could demonstrate. She replies that she first made pysanky when she was seven and continues to make them every year. Her workstation is set up with the traditional equipment used for this craft – white eggs, beeswax, matches, a candle, writing tools known as kistky. She describes how she takes a white egg, writes on the shell using the kistky which is filled with melted beeswax and then dyes the eggs in progressively dark shades so the colours range from white all the way through the spectrum to black. She creates her own designs, all of which have different meanings. There is a long shot of her building up the design, and then she demonstrates how the eggs are dyed to add colour. She then demonstrates how the wax is cleaned from the egg by melting in next to the candle flame. She then shows two eggs of the same design, one which is in the process of having the wax removed and the other which has been completely cleaned as a comparison, and demonstrates how to varnish the finished pysanky. The interviewer thanks her and there is a wider shot of the pysanky she has made and her workstation. This section finishes at 36 mins 52 secs. The next section (date unknown, possibly 13 February 1983) starts at 36 mins 53 secs and is extremely short, showing some of the children from Bradford’s Ukrainian Saturday School at the exhibition. This section ends at 36 mins 58 secs. The next section (dated 5 March 1983) is the AUW Bradford Autumn Bazaar which starts at 36 mins 59 secs. The camera pans the bazaar which is being held in a room at Bradford Ukrainian Club, and shows stalls of cakes, breads and raffle prizes. People are busily buying items and socialising. This section ends at 45 mins 4 secs. The next section (dated 6 March 1983 and 30 April 1983) captures the move from the old Ukrainian Club building at Claremont to the new building at Westfield and starts at 45 mins 19 secs. The camera operator gives a narrative in Ukrainian of what each space was used for but it can be difficult to hear all the detail. The film begins by showing the construction work which is building the new school at Westfield. The camera moves to show people waving through a window and pans round the yard to show where the hall will be built. The scene then moves to inside the existing buildings and shows the new build from this perspective. The scene changes again to the old club on moving day. The camera shows the building from the outside at the front, where furniture and other items are being brought out. The camera then moves to the back of the building and pans around this area. The action then moves to inside the building, walking through the communal areas to a room in which a kindergarten (sadochok) class is taking place, with children singing a nursery rhyme called This Is My Right Hand (Tut prava ruchenka) with a male teacher and female teacher. The camera pans the room as well as well as recording the song. The action the moves back to the stairs in the communal area where a cabinet is being moved. The camera then moves to the toilets briefly before returning to the stairs. There is detailed footage of an empty classroom and office for the Ukrainian School. The books have already been removed but some of the furniture remains, as does a framed photograph of teachers and the noticeboard complete with notices. The camera operator speaks in Ukrainian and describes how all this will be moved to Westfield to continue the school in its new setting. The camera moves to another classroom, the pre-school room, in which pre-school and class one is being taught, then to another pre-school classroom, then class three. The camera then goes up another staircase to meet the head of the Parent’s Committee (Batkivskiy Komitet) and Ukrainian Social Club Lyman Yaroslav Baran, and takes footage of the office of the Parent’s Committee which is in a state of disrepair, and then to another classroom which is used by class ten where furniture is being moved. The action then moves to the kitchen and pans around, where two men are packing up crockery. They joke with the camera operator about how hard they are working. The action then moves to a room which was previously used by the Bradford branch of the Ukrainian Scouts (Plast). It is full of shelving, old protest placards and other items. It was also the room used to hide the presents on St Nicholas’ Day (Svyatiy Mykolai). The camera moves to another room which was used as a shop and now seems to be a store room, where a very old pair of football boots and an old visitors' book are found. The action moves back into the communal areas, calling in to another room which is being packed, tidied and sorted, and then moves to an empty room which had been the office of the Ukrainian Ex-Combatants Association (Ob’yednannya Buvshykh Voyakiv). The camera then pans down the stairwell where an armchair is being carried down, then switches to show some of the men joking around with a wooden sword they have found. It then moves to the office of the Association of Ukrainian Women in Great Britain (AUW), then to a room which had been used as the Ukrainian Library, and speaks to a number of men who are helping to clear out the building. The action then moves to the office of the Ukrainian Social Club Lyman and then moves into the lounge of the social club, briefly featuring the head of the choir who passes by the door. A television is playing in a corner and the room is still fully set up with chairs and tables, and the bar is open. From here the camera moves into the hall, first from the gallery looking down onto the stage. There are a number of children playing in the hall. They then move behind the bar, showing the barman serving someone and all the stock, the till etc. and then moves to the other saloon of the social club, which is still fitted out with tables, chairs and fruit machines. The barman offers the cameraman a vodka, which he refuses, but he pours it anyway and wishes him good health. They move back into the communal areas to look at the sports noticeboard and the general community noticeboard. They then go downstairs to a series of rooms which link to the ground floor of the hall, and had previously been used a dining room, kitchen, the boiler room / cloak room, then through onto the stage, hall and bar, then to the cellars. The moves back outside the rear where they used to play football, the fire escape. They hear a van pull up and go to the front of the club to greet the Kolos bakery van. There is a huge amount of furniture stacked up outside. A number of parents have arrived to collect their children from Ukrainian School. Furniture is loaded into the Kolos van. The scene then moves to the Westfield site, showing the new school building. The scene then cuts to men unloading the Kolos van. They then go inside to a room where furniture has been unloaded and stored, and a group of women are making sandwiches. This section end at 1 hr 19 mins 45 secs. The next section (dated 6 June 1983) starts at 1 hr 19 mins 55 secs and documents the 50th anniversary of the Holodomor. The film begins with a shot of a sign about the death of 7 million Ukrainians in 1933 including a newspaper article by Thomas Walker. It is being displayed as part of an outdoor requiem liturgy celebrated by two priests including Father Matychak at Great Horton Park to commemorate Holodomor. The camera pans across a number of similar signs, held by people from the community, who encircle the area where the altar has been set up, with a choir assembled to the other side of the altar. A large number of people are grouped together to form the congregation and the camera moves to the back to illustrate the number of people in attendance. The scene changes to show a young woman dressed in traditional Ukrainian costume holding one of the signs with a slogan about communist tyranny against Ukraine, and then switches to close up view of some of the other signs. The priests, congregation and sign bearers then form a long procession which goes through the park. The scene then switches to a main road where two police motorbikes have stopped the traffic on one side of the road in order to allow the procession to continue its journey from Great Horton Park to Eastbrook Hall. The scene switches to close up views of the procession being marshalled by the police and continues for a while with these alternate views. The camera then switches to an elevated view at a slight distance from the procession to provide a wider view of its journey as it progresses in front of Central Library. At the head of the procession are some women carrying a large wreath, along with icon bearers. The procession is punctuated with the signs about Holodomor. They continue down the main road and are marshalled by the police. The camera switches back to a position on the ground at the same level as the procession. The scene then changes to inside Eastbrook Hall where a priest is giving a sermon about Holodomor. The choir sings and a number of speeches and addresses about Holodomor are made by men and women from the community, in both English and Ukrainian. The scene then changes to outside, where a smaller group are carrying the wreath across a road crossing towards the cenotaph, where the it is laid. There are some shots of the group and of the wreath. This section ends at 2 hrs 13 mins 13 secs. The next section (dated 17 July 1983) is a recording from BBC1 of the International Musical Eisteddfordd at Llangollen for 1983 presented by Brian Kay and begins at 2hrs 13 mins 27 secs. The recording has been edited just to show the highlights of the Ukrainian group. The programme begins with scenes of Ukrainian women dancing, then the recording stops and starts again with the Halifax Ukrainian Youth Association’s dance group Veselka, performing the Red Boots Dance to Hopak music. It then cuts to the results and Veselka came third. This section ends at 2 hrs 15 mins. The next section (dated August 1983) starts at 2hrs 15 mins at the Westfield building site, showing various views. It ends at 2hrs 18mins 51 secs. The next section (dated 19 May 1984) is in black and white and is a dinner dance to celebrate 50 years of the Ukrainian Saturday School (1953-1983). It starts at 2 hrs 18 mins 52 secs and shows the hall at Bradford Ukrainian Club where the stage is set up with musical instruments belonging to the Black Sea Cossacks, the dance which will provide the music and cabaret. There is footage of the band and people dancing, including a Kolomeyka. The scene then changes to a disco, then some dance and musical accompaniment from the Black Sea Cossacks, including Cossack sword dancing. This section ends at 2 hrs 54 mins 2 secs. The remainder of the film is filled by a recording of a martial arts film which runs right to the end of the tape, ending at 2hrs 56 mins 6 secs.