Intro 2
The Shah Collection consists of about 40 hours of film starting from 1939. Film was shot by Dr. Riaz Ali Shah through the early 1960's. His son Dr. Amjad Riaz Ali Shah continued shooting through the 1970's.
The Collection includes color film of many personalities who passed through Lahore for three decades, from Jacqueline Kennedy and Eleanor Roosevelt to Queen Elizabeth, Jawaharlal Nehru, the Prince Ali Khan and the model Bettina, not to mention every Arab King. It also has footage of both Dr. Shah's travels abroad, from Alabama in the 1930's to Haight-Ashbury in the 1960's.The surviving footage best covers Pakistan in the late 1940's, 1950's and 1960's. Nearly every ruler and leading personality was filmed. There is informal footage with figures like President Ayub Khan and Fatima Jinnah. Film shot by the younger Dr. Shah includes the riots on the Lahore Mall that helped bring Ayub Khan down, and footage of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's rise to and first years in power.
For more information on the post-1947 film footage in the Shah Collection, send email.
The movie section of this web site deals with pre-1947 film material from The Shah Collection. For information on other clips, check the Film Archive index.