A YOUNG film-maker is making her mark with a documentary about her Indian family's emigration to the North-East.

Sandhya Suri's father, Yash Tal and his wife, Susheel, came to England in the 1960s and spent the next 17 years sending audio and video observations back to his homeland.

His daughter has now edited these memories, together with some new footage of the North-East and India.

Miss Suri, 26, said: "He originally came over here to stay for a few years and then wanted to go back to India, but he ended up staying in the North-East for longer than expected.

"He did go back 17 years later, but returned to Darlington because things didn't work out.

"All through his time in the North-East, he sent videos and tapes back to his family in India and they would send their news back.

"I saw the videos a lot as a child and later I decided I wanted to make them into a film because they had a real nostalgic quality.

"When I was making my film, I went to India to shoot some dream-like sequences to represent what my father imagined when he was in Darlington and also shot some modern footage of Darlington."

As well as her father's videos, Miss Suri used tapes sent by her older sister to India.

She said: "It is interesting because you get two very different views of the same thing.

"While my father might have been worried about his life, my sister only saw the good things and was excited all the time about the new world she was experiencing.

"She was only about two when they came over here so grew up in the North-East."

Miss Suri graduated from the National Film and Television School and the film of her father's past made up part of her final exam.

It has since been shown, with help from Northern Arts, at the Cinema du Reel festival in Paris where it won a judge's special recommendation. Miss Suri is also taking it to exhibitions in Germany and Uruguay.

Her ambition now is to show the film, which is subtitled, in her native North-East.

She said: "My parents have lived here for 30 years and me and my sisters were brought up here.

"They have seen the film on a big screen when it was shown at the National Film Theatre in London and my father couldn't believe his life was being watched by so many people. My sisters were very emotional when they saw it because it is a big part of their lives too."

Miss Suri is hoping someone will come forward to help her fund her continuing work with her family heritage.