National Media Museum Bradford Exhibition

The Hola Mahalla exhibition is being shown at the National Media Museum in Bradford from 26 February through to 17 April, on the ground floor opposite the IMAX Cinema.

Using a combination of prints and audio visual content, the exhibition takes the audience on a journey through this unique festival.

At the bottom of this page is a trailer for the documentary film 'Hola Mahalla: The Forgotten Festival' extracts of which will feature in the exhibition.

The film can be ordered on DVD here or to watch on VOD here.

DATES

EXHIBITION: 26 FEBRUARY - 17 APRIL 2016

Open Daily 10am to 6pm

Weekends 10am to 5pm

LATES EVENING: THURSDAY 17 MARCH 2016

6.30pm to 9.30pm

A FREE ticketed event that featured a variety of music performances throughout the night including Dhol players kicking the evening off, live bands, talks and countless other events.

Lates is a night of FREE entertainment for over 18's; where you can relax, have fun and experience exclusive shows, activities and talks and access to the museum and its many exhibitions during the evening.

MAKE SOME NOISE-FAMILY WEEKEND 19/20 MARCH 2016

10am to 4pm.

Clap your hands, stomp your feet and prepare your ears, the National Media Museum is about to MAKE SOME NOISE!

Join us to find out how sounds are made, how we hear them and all the amazing ways we can play with sound.

Discover how technology can make sound incredibly fun, and create weird and wonderful noises that you have never heard before.

Free Dhol Workshops

Free Dhol Workshops were held over the weekend.

Workshop Times: 11.30am, 1.30pm 2.30pm

Dhol Performances intermittently from 10am to 4pm.

For more information about the Make Some Noise-Family Weekend click here.

Address

National Media Museum,
Bradford,
West Yorkshire,
BD1 1NQ

 

Contact

Tel: 0844 856 3797
Email: talk@nationalmediamuseum.org.uk
Opening hours: 08:30 - 17:00 (Monday - Friday), 10:00 - 17:00 (Saturday) 

Hola Mahalla is a little known Sikh festival that takes place annually in Anandpur, India. Dubbed the Sikh Olympics, it involves sword fights, daring horse stunts and a dab of spiritualism.

This documentary focuses on the festival Hola Mahalla that has been running since the 17th century, showcasing skills such as swordsmanship and daring horse stunts that are with an ever decreasing number of nomadic Sikhs.

Featuring key interviews with Nihang Jatherdar (High Priest) Baba Nihal Singh and Kesgarh Sahib Jathedar, Late Giani Tirlochan Singh. This beautifully shot film takes the viewer on a journey through the festival and Anandpur Sahib, the "City of Bliss", providing a snapshot into a world rarely experienced outside of India and exploring this Forgotten Festival.

Hola Mahalla Exhibition run extended to 30 June 2015

We got confirmation today that the exhibition 'Hola Mahalla: The Forgotten Festival' has been extended to the end of June, which is brilliant news for the project. We'll eventually have three months showcasing the exhibition, which features Sikh imagery centred on Hola Mahalla, in a gallery space, in the city centre of Bradford.

It also gives those of you that haven't seen the exhibition already the chance to check it out.

We're hoping to add a few more pieces over the coming days, so please do pay the exhibition a visit whilst it's on.

The launch on the 18 April was a great success and you can watch the video of the day below.

You can also see some of the photos from the launch by clicking here.

We managed to film the exhibition going up and you can see that process with our GoPro exhibition video below.

You can see a trailer of the Documentary by clicking here.

To buy the documentary 'Hola Mahalla: The Forgotten Festival on DVD click here or to watch it online via On-Demand click here.

You Can follow us on Twitter and Facebook by clicking the buttons below.

A big thank you to the Kala Sangam team for their support and faith in the project. 

Thanks

D

GoPro Timelapse of Hola Mahalla: The Forgotten Festival - Exhibition Preparation

When the exhibition was being put up, we decided to film the whole process. We've got a few videos filmed around the exhibition preparation and the first we're sharing was filmed using a GoPro camera. It looks pretty cool and can be seen below. We had it on the floor, in one of the corners to begin with and then moved it around. It's an interesting camera to have and one I will be experimenting more with on shoots going forward.

It is a small camera and kind of disappears into the background. I think on the next shoot I'll try to utilise how small it is. It's so small I nearly left it there at the end of the shoot.

You can see a trailer of the Documentary by clicking here.

To buy the documentary 'Hola Mahalla: The Forgotten Festival on DVD click here or to watch it online via On-Demand click here.

You Can follow us on Twitter and Facebook by clicking the buttons below.

A big thank you to Matt from Kala Sangam for getting the exhibition on the wall and letting me film the process.

Thanks

D

Pictures from the Hola Mahalla exhibition launch

Here are the pictures from the exhibition launch and preview Screening of the Documentary Hola Mahalla: The Forgotten Festival on the 18 April. Below you can also see the launch video from the day.

You can see a trailer of the Documentary by clicking here.

To buy the documentary 'Hola Mahalla: The Forgotten Festival on DVD click here or to watch it online via On-Demand click here.

You Can follow us on Twitter and Facebook by clicking the buttons below.

A big thank you to Tim Mottram and Kala Sangam for the photos.

Thanks

D

Test Prints

I received the latest batch of test prints for the Hola Mahalla exhibition, it feels like a step closer, and makes it little more real. I got a mixture of sizes, to see what is possible. When you blow an image up, any size bigger than A3 and you will potentially have issues. So a big thing we wanted to do was make sure the images were the best we could make them for the different sizes.

For exhibitions, when it comes to cost you don't just have to factor in the printing of the images you also have to factor in the frame costs. Thats obviously separate to the time and money invested in getting those shots in the first place. Eventually it all adds up.

Putting on an exhibition isn't cheap, and when you're funding it yourself it's daunting to say the least, but I feel its still worth persevering with and investing in. I personally haven't seen an exhibition on Hola Mahalla so that's an extra incentive to put it on. I also haven't come across too many Sikh themed exhibitions, especially up north. So instead of complaining about the absence of such exhibitions, or the lack sponsorship or funding that obviously would help finance such an endeavour, I decided to just crack on and do something. Thankfully the exhibition is on for at least two months, so I'm hoping people will get a chance to see it.

I hope people can take something away from the exhibition. I hope young and old, Sikhs and none Sikhs get the opportunity to visit it and be reminded of the great warrior and spiritual tradition us Sikhs were once famed for. I hope through the exhibition, people get a glimmer of this unique and amazing festival and be inspired to go experience it themselves.

With a bit of hard work and persistence they will.

To buy the documentary 'Hola Mahalla: The Forgotten Festival click here.

Thanks

D