Bradford’s City of Film team has joined forces with Destination Bradford to invite film clubs and societies from around the UK to visit the district and learn about its film heritage.

Called Destination Film, the initiative is aimed at getting film enthusiasts to visit Bradford, providing spin-off benefits for hotels, restaurants, shops and other businesses.

City of Film director David Wilson said there were plans to extend the invitation to international film societies through partner UNESCO Cities worldwide.

Film clubs were invited to the National Media Museum yesterday to see the world’s first colour film, discovered there last year.

The moving pictures, from the museum’s collection, were made by photographer and inventor Edward Turner using a process he patented with financial backer Frederick Lee in 1899. Experts at the museum have dated the films to 1901 or 1902, making them the earliest examples of colour moving pictures in existence.

Turner developed his complex three-colour process to take test films of subjects such as a macaw, a goldfish and his children playing with sunflowers. After Turner’s death, aged 29, in 1903, American entrepreneur Charles Urban developed the process further, resulting in the commercially successful Kinemacolor system, first exhibited to the public in 1909.

On discovering the footage, Michael Harvey, curator of cinematography at the National Media Museum, worked with film archive experts to reconstruct it, following the precise method laid out in Lee and Turner’s 1899 patent. Experts at the BFI National Archive undertook the delicate work of transforming the film material into digital files, enabling audiences to watch the pictures for the first time since they were made.

Mr Harvey said: “We sat in the editing suite entranced as full-colour shots made 110 years ago came to life. The image of the goldfish was stunning – its colours so lifelike and subtle. Then there was a macaw with brilliantly coloured plumage, a glimpse of soldiers marching, and young children dressed in Edwardian finery.”

Members of Bradford City of Film, Destination Bradford and film fans from around the UK attended a special screening of the footage last night.

Mr Wilson said: “Bradford already enjoys a film-friendly reputation in terms of film and television production. We would like to extend that warm welcome to film enthusiasts from around the UK to visit Bradford and enjoy the many and varied film connections.”

Charalene Lee, chairman of Destination Bradford, said: “We have a quite a unique offer here, working in partnership with City of Film, the National Media Museum and hotels within the city and the wider district. There are a number of hotels and businesses in Bradford that have doubled as film sets over the years and continue to do so.”

Film clubs and societies will receive information on Destination Film from next week.

For more information, ring (01274) 433678 or go to visitbradford.com.