A film commissioned by York Museums Trust to explore the impact of an African Roman Emperor on York will be shown at City Screen, York on Tuesday evening as a prelude to the York Roman Festival.

Severus & The City (PG) examines York’s Roman heritage, focusing primarily on Septimius Severus, who died in the city 1,800 years ago, in 211AD.

In particular it looks at the influence he had on the city’s culture and his abiding legacy, as assessed in interviews with everyone from historians to hairdressers.

The film has been created by media students from York College in tandem with Digifish Media Productions and the Yorkshire Museum’s Precious Cargo (part of Stories Of The World, a project for the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad).

Aisha Ali-Sutcliffe, who is leading the Precious Cargo project, says: “Severus & The City is a fantastic documentary on York’s Roman past and how this still has an influence on styles and fashions today. The students worked really hard on it and it’s great for them that City Screen has got behind the project and decided to give it a public premiere on the big screen.”

The 45-minute film will be complemented by a second documentary, Transient (PG), a short film about a fashion collection created by young York designers, whose contemporary catwalk pieces were inspired by the skeleton and grave goods of an African woman buried in Roman York. Tuesday’s screenings begin at 6.45pm. Tickets cost £7, concessions £6, under 14s and members £5, on 0871 902 5726 or online at picturehouses.co.uk/york