A film by Pishdaad Modaressi Chahardehi produced for Apna Heritage in which Urdu writer Yaqub Nizami explores the rich South Asian heritage in Bradford from the first Pakistani man in the city to the first mosque and first Asian restaurant which is still serving the local community more than sixty years after first opening. Yaqub Nizami walks towards his car, gets in and drives through Bradford. Title: APNA Bradford Credit: A film by Apna Heritage Sitting in a chair Yaqub and over a...

A film by Pishdaad Modaressi Chahardehi produced for Apna Heritage in which Urdu writer Yaqub Nizami explores the rich South Asian heritage in Bradford from the first Pakistani man in the city to the first mosque and first Asian restaurant which is still serving the local community more than sixty years after first opening. Yaqub Nizami walks towards his car, gets in and drives through Bradford. Title: APNA Bradford Credit: A film by Apna Heritage Sitting in a chair Yaqub and over a montage of related archival documents and historical photographs he talks about that it was for economic reasons that people from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh moved to the United Kingdom initially working as servants and labourers and about the challenges of these early years. Over a montage of aerials over Bradford Yaqub talk about why people moved to the city and how the wool industry and the many mills and factories provided employment. As he speaks a number of older people hold up photographs of themselves and their families when they were younger and first arrived in Bradford. Moving on Yaqub talks about how settlements started in Bradford around William Street and later Morley and Anne Street. As he picks out a document from a box, he talks about the first Asian in Bradford Shah Zareen who is believed to have been Pathan. A photograph of his grave changes to Yaqub and another younger man walking towards the street sign for William Street where Shah lived. As Yaqub explains that those who moved to Bradford never gave up on either their religion or their culture a montage of images showing an aerial of a local mosque, women’s clothing and boxes of spices. A photograph featuring Ghalib Khan and three other men in wrestling costumes with details being provided by Yaqub about him arriving in Bradford in 1930 and running a meat shop on Neil Street. A photograph of Glassy (Ghulam Hassan) Shah with Yaqub explaining how he was had the first Halal meat licence issued by Bradford Council in 1950. As Yaqub walks the streets of Bradford he looks over a number of businesses and talks in voiceover about how they found their bases in the city. As he stands across the street from it, he talks about Bradford’s first Asian restaurant still opening today; Kashmir Restaurant on Morley Street which opened in 1958. As Yaqub walks past the Howard Street Mosque he talks about it being the first mosque in the city. Walking through Bowling Street Cemetery he talks about how the community purchased the firs burial plots for the Muslim population here. As a father and son look through family photographs Yaqub talks about the people who worked hard deserving credit. Over aerial views across Bradford Yaqub explains how there are now five-million Asians in the UK and that the city is for him beautiful. The film ends with him standing with a younger man lookover the city below. Credit: Videography and Editing Pishdaad Modaressi Chahardehi Additional footage Luqman Hussain Narrated by Yaqub Nizami Featuring Fazeelat Bibi, Mohammed Gulbahar Title: Funded by The Leap End title: Clipto.AI