Documentary to tell story of family's 50 years in Croydon (From Croydon Guardian)

Documentary to tell story of family's 50 years in Croydon

5:00am Wednesday 26th September 2012 in News

An American film-maker has made a documentary chronicling 50 years of an Anglo-Indian family adjusting to life in Croydon.

Natalie Sloan, 32, has conducted interviews with three generations of the Fleury family, who moved from India to Addiscombe in 1962, sheltering eight family members in a single room as they adjusted to life in south London.

The result, Britain’s Forgotten Grandchildren, the story of an Anglo-Indian family, will be screened to family members next month before being submitted to film festivals around the world.

Mrs Sloan, who works as a script supervisor and has film credits including a series of Hollywood films and Channel Four series Misfits, first began work on the film 18 months ago.

Working with her sister-in-law Kelly Sloan, whose family is featured, Mrs Sloan gathered details of the family and also the wider history of Anglo-Indians, many of whom settled in Britain after India’s independence.

She said: “It is part of Britain’s heritage and yet very few people you meet know anything about them.

“The subject is fascinating and paints a real picture of what it was like moving to London in that time.”

Anglo-Indians date back to the 18th century and the first European settlement on the Indian subcontinent.

The result from intermarriage was a community of Anglo-Indians who formed a niche in colonial society, predominantly working in government positions, that disappeared with the country’s independence.

Mrs Sloan, said: “It is a glimpse of history and a story not often told.”