Second animation

Kain Leo has now finished work on her second animation and she has sent me the film plus a few screenshots. The subject is a continuation of the first short film - Mr Aslom Miah's story of leaving Bangladesh for England and, in particular, the terrible wrench of having to leave his mother. 

The film is another colourful and delightful animation - but tinged with the sadness of this particular memory of his childhood.

Animations

One of the most exciting strands of our Different Moons programme has been creating short animated films inspired by the interviews we've made with some of the first generation of immigrants to Rossendale from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

We've now made 10 films, created by wide range of animators. The latest two films have been very exciting, created by a young Chinese animator Kain Leo, who based her films on the story of Mr Aslom Miah and his journey from Bangladesh to Rossendale as a young man. Above we have three screen shots from her two films.

Our plan is to launch all of the films in 2016, when they will be part of a brand new Different Moons website, alongside the publication of a book of poetry and other writings by the participants in our creative writing workshops. We'll also be delivering the collected interviews and transcriptions and presenting them to local history libraries and North West Archives.

Mr Miah

The past couple of weeks have involved two separate visits to record the story of Mr Aslom Miah. Mr Miah was born in Bangladesh and has lived in Rawtenstall, in the same house, for 51 years.

Mr Miah has been writing a book about his life. How he arrived in England in 1963 speaking no English at all; how he found work in the local mills; then on the buses; between these  jobs he built up a chain of restaurants throughout the area. His story include how he quickly realised that he must learn English, and how with the help and support of friends and acquaintances, English-language classes were organised in Rawtenstall. Mr Miah went on to act as an interpreter for the Home Office, and the Crown Court. Now, still very active and alert, he wants to pass on his story to a younger generation. 

I visited Aslom Miah first with my colleagues Habiba Shenza (above), and later with Shamshad Khan. In total we made over 3 hours of recordings of Mr Miah talking about his life. Because of the work on the book recently, his memories are particularly fresh and vivid - and a wonderful gift to the Different Moons project. 

In fact I knew Aslom Miah in the 1980s, when Horse + Bamboo had a workshop in Foundry Street in Rawtenstall, which is just round the corner from the Miah family. His young children used to come to play in our workshop, and one of the delights of these recent interviews was meeting his daughters Aysha, and Amina, once again. It was lovely to hear their memories of those days - of our horses, making clay models, and the characters they met in the theatre workshop.