Gypsies invade New York, bring with them amazing music

by Paul Caine September 1, 2009

Gypsies. The subject of much lore, fear, and confusion—think organ grinders, caravans, and petty theft—they make up an ethnic group (the Romani) that most folks don't know much about, but which has a major presence across Europe and Asia and an artistic legacy that deserves wider acclaim.

Luckily, people are starting to catch on, and expunge any memory of terrible 1996 film Thinner from their minds. That disaster involved fortune-telling, curses, and Joe Mantegna—none of which should be present for the fifth annual New York Gypsy Festival, which begins on Sept. 11 and runs through Sept. 26. Of particular note are some cool-sounding concerts: Arcade Fire/Yeah Yeah Yeahs/Antibalas side project Sway Machinery performs on a tall ship on Sept. 12, and Rhythm Of Rajasthan is playing Symphony Space on Sept. 26. The latter act is composed of traditional players from the Indian region of Rajasthan—folks whose caste determined their careers as musicians. Here in America, it's usually just folks trying to disappoint their parents.

All of which is to say: Check this out. Full details can be found at the festival's website here.

Gypsy and Traveller film to challenge prejudices

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 By Emily Twinch

A media charity has produced a film promoting the need for more Gypsy and Traveller sites.

The Rural Media Company’s DVD, Sites and Rights, features a series of interviews to try to dispel prejudices.

It starts by saying 150,000 Gypsies and Travellers live in houses or on unauthorised sites in England and Wales and that a recent audit revealed nearly 4,000 families had no legitimate stopping places, short or long.

Luke Clements, from Cardiff Law School, says in the video: ‘There aren’t enough sites and there are upwards of 3,000 families with nowhere to live.

‘Once a site has been built, people forget it’s there. If every borough council gave one or two permissions a year the problem would cease to exist.’

There are interviews with people who have changed their minds about Travellers and Gypsies, such as resident David Hilden from Warwickshire.

Since they moved in next to his home he says in the film ‘they’re no trouble at all’.

Viewers are also given a tour of Roma Gypsy Bobbie Jones’ family home.

A Communities and Local Government department annual progress report on the government’s policy of increasing site provision, published last month, concluded: ‘The current position on site delivery remains unsatisfactory.

‘It is clear that local authorities need to increase the pace at which suitable locations are identified that can be used as Gypsy and Traveller sites.’

Gypsy Child Thieves

This World: Gypsy Child Thieves
Wednesday 2nd September 7.00pm BBC2

Produced/Directed/Presented by Liviu Tipurita

From Madrid to Milan to London, European cities have experienced a surge of street crime since the accession of Eastern European countries to the European Union in 2007. Much of it – pick pocketing, theft from bags, stealing from cash machines – is carried out by Romani Gypsy children from Romania. This World investigates this disturbing phenomenon: the adults who force the children on to the streets to beg and steal and the increasing evidence of Gypsy organised crime, trafficking children around Europe.

Romanian film maker Liviu Tipurita, who has spent many years investigating child trafficking and exploitation and who has made several films about Romania’s gypsy community, filmed in Spain and in Italy, where Gypsy crime has hit the headlines and where the right-wing government has introduced draconian measures to target the Gypsies. With remarkable access to Gypsy camps, the film charts how child crime has become increasingly common within the community. And covert footage shows just how hard these child thieves work to earn their adult controllers many thousands of pounds.

In Madrid police say that 95% of the children under 14 who they pick up are Romanian Gypsies. Their crime of choice is robbing people as they withdraw money from cash machines. Liviu filmed covertly as children as young as ten, who appeared well trained in distraction techniques, fearlessly targeted people withdrawing money. It often took several bystanders to force them off.

In a squalid, rat infested camp outside Madrid, 13-year-old Daniela explains that how the police are powerless to stop them: “When you steal, you can make 300 in one go. It’s only the police that catch us, they take the money we have on us, they take us to the day centre, and the centre lets us go.” Girl thieves like Daniela can be sold into marriage for as much as 25,000 Euros. The value of the Gypsy child brides is directly dependent on how skilled they are at stealing.

In Milan, Italian police launched a major investigation following an explosion of pick pocketing and theft at the city’s central station. The operation, involving covert surveillance and phone tapping, revealed a sophisticated international organisation that shipped hundreds of thousands of euros stolen by children on the streets to criminal gangsters back in Romania. A police raid discovered 15 children locked in a shed, and resulted in the conviction of 25 adults for their enslavement and exploitation. However, This World discovered that some of the children taken into care during the operation have escaped and are once again stealing on the streets of Milan under the control of adults.

At the end of his journey, Liviu Tipurita travels to Romania. Here the majority of Roma Gypsies live in abject poverty. They have been the victims of racism for centuries and live outside mainstream society. Organised crime exploits the desperation and poverty that blights the community. However even a senior figure in the Gypsy underworld, interviewed for the programme, believes that the stealing has gone too far. Revealing the fabulous mansions and expensive cars that have been bought with the proceeds of crime abroad, Breliant believes that the current level of crime could lead to further problems for the Romani Gypsies: “Our country won’t understand us any longer, the Western countries will chase us away. And then I ask myself… where are we going to go? Where will we live?”

Gypsy artists are coming to town

Published Date: 29 May 2009

TOP gypsy artists are coming to Doncaster to mark the second national Gypsy Roma Traveller History month.

The Baro Ziro Big Time Festival will be running for a week in June as part of the Hothouse arts programme, and will taken place at three venues across the borough - including a traditional circus tent in Chequer Road's Arts Park.

The main marquee line-up will feature entertainment from world music chart-toppers, KAL, Czech Eurovision entry Gypsy CZ and the rarely seen traveller music legend Ambrose Coop and Family.

There will be tales of life on the road with the UK's leading traveller storyteller, Richard O'Neill, an evening of performance, tunes and stories directed by the internationally acclaimed theatre director Alan Lyddiard, and a special screening of Shane Meadows' iconic film King of the Gypsies.
The gallery at The Point, on South Parade, will play host to the creation of an installation by renowned British traveller artists Delaine and Damian Le Bas, and British Traveller photographer Patricia Knight will bring her exhibition to Cusworth Hall.

Baro Ziro runs from Saturday June 13 to Saturday June 20. Tickets are available from the Doncaster Civic Theatre box office on 01302 342349

PRINCES AMONGST MEN: THE GYPSY FILM FESTIVAL!

FEATURE FILMS AND DOCUMENTARIES
ALONGSIDE A PHOTO EXHIBITION, LIVE MUSIC & DJS OVER TWO WEEK-ENDS!

www.myspace.com/princesamongstmen2007

April 24-25-26 @ The Ritzy, Brixton

May 1-2-3 @ The Picture House, Greenwich

This festival was conceived by Garth Cartwright after his book, Princes Amongst Men: Journeys With Gypsy Musicians (Serpents Tail) was published in 2005 and readers’ began enquiring as to how they could get to see the various feature films and documentaries he described. Since then lost classic feature films, brand new feature films and many documentaries have been screened. Directors, cinephiles and Roma rights activists have participated and the Ritzy’s upstairs bar has been transformed into a Gypsy-flavoured party across the weekend.

For 2009 the Festival continues with a rich offering of past classics and brilliant new material. The Ritzy also hosts FREE live music on Saturday and Sunday night in the upstairs bar and a PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBITION of an Albanian Roma community by Australian photojournalist Rob Hackman.

=======================================================
THE RITZY BRIXTON Friday 24th, Saturday 25th, Sunday 26th APRIL
=======================================================

FRIDAY 9pm: LATCHO DROM (film)
Directed by Tony Gatlif, this beautiful 1993 feature follows the musical migration of the Romany people from Rajasthan to Andalucia. Celebrated as a classic of world cinema, Latcho Drom is a haunting, visionary film.

+ post-screening Princes Amongst Men DJ event @ Ritzy upstairs Bar

SATURDAY afternoon 4.10pm: GYPSY MUSIC EXTRAVAGANZA (vintage live footage)
Vintage TV (Esma Redzepova, Gabby Lunca) live performances (Fanfare Ciocarlia), Guca festival footage and Bulgaria's Azis. Ranges from the ‘60s to ‘00s: a variety of short documentaries including 1960s footage of Esma Redzepova, 1970s Romanian TV footage of Bygone Age stars, contemporary footage from Serbia’s Guca festival, Bulgaria’s gay Gypsy pop-folk icon Azis and other footage; most never before screened in the UK before.

SATURDAY evening 6.45pm: PRETTY DYANA: A GYPSY RECYCLING SAGA & CYMBALOM LEGACY (documentaries)

Roma documentaries Pretty Dyana: A Gypsy Recycling Saga (Serbia) & Cymbalom Legacy (Holland-Hungary 45 mins) are acclaimed, brilliant award winning documentaries! Pretty Dyana finds director Boris Mitic investigating how Roma families that fled ethnic cleansing in Kosovo have built Mad Max-like vehicles from old Yugoslav Dyana cars and employ them to recycle Belgrade’s trash. It is both hilarious and life-affirming – a Balkan Slumdog! Cymbalom Legacy focuses on virtuoso Hungarian cymbalom player Miklos Lukacs. Beautifully shot and recorded by director Mano Camon, Cymbalom Legacy offers up both a history of the cymbalom and the life story of Lukacs, a young Roma musician dedicated to crossing boundaries.

+ post-screenings live music @ Ritzy upstairs Bar with French singer-guitarist FLORENCE JOELLE, accompanied by accordionist-keyboard LUCIE REJCHRTOVA, performing a blend of jazz, blues and Romany songs (Princes Amongst Men DJ support).

SUNDAY afternoon 4.30pm: ROMA HUMAN RIGHTS EVENT (documentaries)
A variety of short documentaries from Turkey, Kosovo, Serbia, Bulgaria and the UK celebrating ROMA HUMAN RIGHTS.

**** British Gypsy activist and film maker Jake Bowers will present several shorts he has directed on the UK Gypsy-Traveller community*****

SUNDAY evening 7.00pm: I EVEN MET HAPPY GYPSIES + CHILDREN OF THE BRASS BAND (film)

A very rare screening of the classic 1960s Yugoslav film I EVEN MET HAPPY GYPSIES. This brilliant, disturbing feature is rated as one of the great European films of the 1960s, helped launch Yugoslavia's "black cinema" movement and inspired Kusturica’s Gypsy epics. Supported by THE CHILDREN OF THE BRASS BAND VILLAGE, a witty and engaging 15-minute documentary that shows how ancient musical traditions continue to exist in southern Serbia.

+ post-film screenings live music @ Ritzy upstairs Bar with klezmer duo THE MATZOH BOYS (PAM DJ support).

RITZY PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBITION

A photographic exhibition of an Albanian Roma community by Australian photojournalist Rob Hackman will hang in the Ritzy's downstairs bar across April.

Hackman writes, “After emerging from 50 years of isolated communist rule the people of Albania were encouraged to invest their savings and houses in a huge pyramid scheme. An estimated $2 billion was lost when these government endorsed schemes collapsed in 1997. Today many in Albaniastruggle to rebuild their lives.

This collection of images depict the lives of a small group of Roma living in the wake of this huge financial crash.” All prints will be for sale with profit going back to this Roma community.

============================================================================
THE PICTURE HOUSE GREENWICH Friday 1st, Saturday 2nd, Sunday 3rd MAY
============================================================================
FRIDAY 6.45pm: LATCHO DROM (film)
Directed by Tony Gatlif, this beautiful 1993 feature follows the musical migration of the Romany people from Rajasthan to Andalucia. Celebrated as a classic of world cinema, Latcho Drom is a haunting, visionary film.

SATURDAY evening 6.45pm: PRETTY DYANA: A GYPSY RECYCLING SAGA & CYMBALOM LEGACY (documentaries)

Roma documentaries Pretty Dyana: A Gypsy Recycling Saga (Serbia) & Cymbalom Legacy (Holland-Hungary 45 mins) are acclaimed, brilliant award winning documentaries! Pretty Dyana finds director Boris Mitic investigating how Roma families that fled ethnic cleansing in Kosovo have built Mad Max-like vehicles from old Yugoslav Dyana cars and employ them to recycle Belgrade’s trash. It is both hilarious and life-affirming – a Balkan Slumdog! Cymbalom Legacy focuses on virtuoso Hungarian cymbalom player Miklos Lukacs. Beautifully shot and recorded by director Mano Camon, Cymbalom Legacy offers up both a history of the cymbalom and the life story of Lukacs, a young Roma musician dedicated to crossing boundaries.

SUNDAY afternoon 4pm: ROMA HUMAN RIGHTS EVENT (documentaries)
A variety of short documentaries from Turkey, Kosovo, Serbia, Bulgaria and the UK celebrating ROMA HUMAN RIGHTS.

==============================================================

THE RITZY, BRIXTON Box Office: 08707 550
Coldharbour Lane, London, SW2 1JG
Nearest tube: Brixton (Victoria Line), 3 minutes walk
www.picturehouses.co.uk/site/cinemas/ritzy/local.htm

GREENWICH PICTURE HOUSE Box Office: 08707 55 00 65
180 Greenwich High Road , Greenwich, London, SE10 8NN
British Rail is five minutes walk
www.picturehouses.co.uk/site/cinemas/Greenwich/local.html

Channel 4 doc slate to lift veil on Gypsy weddings

Published: 02 April 2009 09:39 Author: Robin Parker

Firecracker Films is to lift the lid on extravagant Gypsy weddings in a Channel 4 documentary.
The indie is filming several Romany weddings, which typically cost £100,000 – five times the UK average – for the Cutting Edge film.

The weddings often feature lavish decorations, horse-drawn carriages, extravagant fireworks, and a teenage bride in a 20-stone wedding dress.

C4 commissioning editor for factual entertainment Alistair Pegg ordered the film. He said that it would reveal a "moral world of traditional values" among the Gypsy community.

Pegg has also commissioned The World's Oldest Mums (working title), a Cutting Edge doc from Blast! Films. It will meet two Indian women who made headlines last year by giving birth in their early 70s.

Director Amanda Blue, who previously made Prescott: The Class System and Me, will explore the taboo of women over 50 who have a baby. In the UK, 100 women over 50 have IVF each year, and 20 of them give birth.

"As a nation we still have a kneejerk opinion, rooted in disgust, on this issue, but the film will show how science is way ahead of us," said Pegg.

The commissioner has also greenlit a third series of Dragonfly Film and Television's The World's… and Me, in which Mark Dolan meets people with extreme claims to fame. The 4 x 60-minute series will include the world's richest teenager, the world's closest twins and the world's fattest family. Series one has already covered the hairiest man and fattest pet.

Gypsy movie shown in Fremont Saturday

Feb 18, 2009

FREMONT — The second film of a four-part Foreign Film Series will show 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Dogwood Center in Fremont.

"The Crazy Stranger," directed by Tony Gatlif, spins a story of a wandering hero and includes scene after scene of Gypsy music, dance, and the carefree and spirited zest for life that permeates the Romany culture. Filmed in the Romany language, with English subtitles, this 97-minute film contains adult content and language.

Tickets are $7.50 per person, which includes the Apres Film social gathering in the Dogwood lobby after the film. Tickets are available from the Dogwood box office or at the door.

Film a celebration of Gypsy music and culture

By Margaret Smith
GateHouse News Service
Posted Jan 20, 2009 @ 06:22 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Acton, Mass. —

Exuberant violins and brass, the soaring passions and aching sorrows of flamenco echo across the same stage as a compelling drum beat from northern India -- rhythms from which these and many other sounds sprang.

These far-flung music styles came together in the Gypsy Caravan tour, chronicled in “When The Road Bends: Tales of A Gypsy Caravan,” which follows the artists, technicians and producers on a very noisy bus traveling to elite concert halls throughout North America.

The film is a dramatized documentary following the tour -- a dazzling survey of Gypsy music in its many forms, which included a Boston area stop -- and reaches into the inner lives of the artists and staff , both on stage and off.

Enthusiastic audiences greet them everywhere. With shots of the musicians’ encounters with devoted fans on sidewalks and during shows, the film slyly records how “right now” Gypsy music has become, even as Gypsy people continue to suffer discrimination and sometimes differ over how to chart a course for a better future.

Despite a common origin, the Gypsy communities represented on the tour have to work to find common ground, overcoming barriers of geography, language and cultural differences.

Interspersed with dazzling performance segments are segments of the performers’ friendships and occasional clashes on the bus and in hotel rooms, and glimpses into their lives back home.

These postcards from their native lands – forming a trail of the Gypsy diaspora, from India to the United States – are often sad, but not without silent victories.

In their homelands, even the most celebrated musicians can face struggles despite their celebrity status. Esma Redžepova, a celebrated Macedonian singer, recalls the plight of the influx of refugees from Kosovo.

The Romanian ensemble, Taraf De Haidouks, became stars through concerts and film appearances, with Johnny Depp – who appears briefly – among their fans and collaborators. But, band members support an entire, impoverished Gypsy village, where their large extended families live. Juana la del Pipa, matriarch of a flamenco family, speaks from her apartment in Spain about helping loved ones overcome drug addiction.

Extras include more concert footage, vintage footage and scenes of Gypsy life in various locales, an interview with Depp that rambles and provides little added insight.

Rich with history, stories, music and dance, “Gypsy Caravan” is a rare, candid insight into an intensely private people, with musicians – as they so often are – ambassadors -- shuttling between worlds in the hopes of bringing them together.

‘When The Road Bends: Tales of A Gypsy Caravan.’ Directed by Jasmine Dellal. Little Dust Productions. English, with Spanish, Romany, Romanian, Macedonian and Hindi with subtitles. Margaret Smith is Arts and Calendar Editor of GateHouse Media New England's Northwest Unit. E-mail her at msmith@cnc.com.

Gogol Bordello Documentary's North American Premiere

10/27/08 5:09 pm
by Kate Harper (CHARTattack)

If you think Gogol Bordello are worthy film subjects, you'll be pleased to know that Gogol Bordello Non-Stop, a feature documentary about the gypsy punk band, will have its North American premiere on Nov. 1.

The film will be screened at 7:10 p.m. at Los Angeles' ArcLight Hollywood theatre during the American Film Institute Film Festival. There will be a repeat screening at 12:30 p.m. on Nov. 5 at the same theatre.

"I'm thrilled we are gong straight to Hollywood to have the North American premiere," director Margarita Jimeno says. "Who would have thought gypsy punks are so loved on the west coast. What a great way to enter a town for the first time."

Gogol Bordello Non-Stop was selected for the 2008 Munich, Goteberg and Ghent international film festivals. Jimeno began filming Gogol Bordello main man Eugene Hutz and his theatrical troupe of performers in 2000 while he was a DJ at New York City's Bulgarian Bar. Gogol Bordello Non-Stop features interviews with Hutz about his days as a DJ, Gogol Bordello's early days and the band's subsequent world tours. You can watch a trailer here.

Hutz made his acting debut in 2006's Everything Is Illuminated, and he can currently be seen in theatres in Madonna's directorial debut, Filth And Wisdom. The film features Hutz starring as a Ukrainian immigrant who aspires to rock stardom by adopting a cross-dressing dominatrix stage persona. Gogol Bordello also appear as a gypsy punk band in the film. Let's hope it's more like Everything Is Illuminated and nothing like any other movie Madge has been involved with.

Pontecorvo wows Venice with Romanian gypsy film

By Peter Popham in Rome
Friday, 29 August 2008

In 1966, the year he was born, Marco Pontecorvo's father Gillo won the Venice Film Festival's Golden Lion with one of the greatest postwar Italian films, The Battle of Algiers. Forty-two years on, the soft-spoken cinematographer stood with a look of stunned bemusement on his face as the Venice audience gave him a standing ovation and 12 minutes of applause for his first film as director.

He wasn't to know it when he conceived the project seven years ago, but Parada, which opens in Italian cinemas in September, is cruelly relevant to Italy's most pressing national debate. For more than a year the country has been obsessed with what to do about the surge of impoverished immigrants from Romania.

Pontecorvo's debut offering - a feature film not a documentary - is about these people, and the true story of how a Franco-Algerian clown responded to them after a chance meeting in Bucharest. That true story belongs to Miloud Oukili, who flew to Romania in 1992 intending to stay for just a couple of months, but ended up staying for 13 years.

In Bucharest he discovered the “boskettari”: the thousands of children who were the tragic victims of Ceausescu's rule, and of the chaos that followed its dissolution: refugees from families too poor or violent to stay with or from abusive orphanages, who lived like rats in the city's substrata, in tunnels alongside the mains hot water pipes, sleeping on putrid mattresses in cardboard boxes, feared and spurned by their society. They stayed alive by petty theft, drug-dealing and prostitution. Many, even the tiny ones, had become hooked on glue-sniffing.

Miloud was transfixed by their plight, unable to tear himself away. He set about doing something for the boskettari, using his circus skills, and with the help of magic and clowning he slowly overcame their distrust. The result, years later, was Parada, a professional circus troupe made up of former boskettari which travels the world. More than 1,000 children have succeeded in graduating from the sewers with his help.

“It was a story that got to me,” Pontecorvo says, “and when a story gets to you, that gives you the energy to meet the challenges of turning it into a film. It wasn't easy: the fact that we started in 2001 and completed the film in 2007 gives you an idea of the problems we faced.”

Pontecorvo dedicated the film to his father, who died two years ago. “His advice to me while I was making the film was to be careful because it was a difficult film. He liked it a lot, he said, but it was very difficult.” The risk was of descending into pathos and sentimentality, of “polluting” the story as Pontecorvo puts it. The consensus is that he has pulled it off.

“It's a story of love and friendship,” he says. “Because Oukili himself came - not from the sewers but from a similar background. It was a dream he realised through love and respect. Respect was one of the things he taught them, but also perhaps learned from them. Because remember, he himself was only 20 when he arrived, only a little older than the children. They grew up together.”

The challenge of coaxing these children, condemned by their own society as irredeemable, to learn to respect themselves and to stand tall contrasts harshly with what has happened in Italy over the past months, where left and right have competed to propose ever harsher solutions to the “security problem” with the “Rom” pose. Among the most controversial proposals is that of the Berlusconi government to fingerprint all Roma in the country, children included.

“I find this an extremely shocking proposal,” commented Jalil Lespert, the actor who plays Oukili, “one which belongs to the distant past. The fact that people are talking about such things again is a dangerous sign for Europe.”

“The thousand children who have been saved are nothing compared to the thousands still living on the streets who know nothing of joy or hope,” Miloud told the festival audience at Venice. “You don't have to go to Bucharest,” Pontecorvo pointed out. “It's enough to go to the suburbs of Paris or any other great metropolis to find children whose childhood has been denied.”

'Caravan' Puts Light On Gypsy Culture

August 26, 2008

Gypsy Caravan: When the Road Bends (Docurama, 2008) — Director Jasmine Dellal didn't set out to combat racism when she made "Gypsy Caravan." She just wanted to show off the wide variety of Gypsy musical styles seen throughout the world. But the overall message of this concert film is nonetheless racial enlightenment, as it shows members of one of the world's most misunderstood and shunned ethnic groups in a joyful and, more importantly, multidimensional light. These Gypsy musicians are so different, and their cultures so diverse, that at first when they get together to put on their show they don't see eye-to-eye about anything. They gradually warm to each other's differences and put on a lively performance that travels across the United States. In-depth profiles of each Gypsy musician give a fascinating glimpse of Roma life worldwide. Not rated.

Coastside Film Society screens a fresh and vibrant musical surprise, Friday

Feature: The Crazy Stranger (Gadjo Dilo)
French and Romany with English subtitles

Tony Gatlif is a wonderful French/Roma (Gypsy) film maker. When the Film Society screened “Latcho Drom”, Gatlif’s documentary about the many styles of gypsy music in Jan 2007, the audience asked for more. This month they are going to give HMB more.

On June 20th The Film Society is screening one of Tony’s feature films about the Roma (Gypsy) life. Gadjo Dilo (The Crazy Stranger) follows a young Frenchman who finds himself living among Romanian gypsies. This plot about a stranger living among the Rom gives Gatlif the chance to explore the passions of Rom culture, music, and mores in a way that he could not do using the documentary format of Latcho Drom.

This story touches upon adult themes and the Rom actors are not afraid of using authentically salty language. So the Film Society was a little concerned about screening it at their usual venue at the Methodist Sanctuary. So they are moving this screening this month down the road to their our old haunt South of town at the Depot at Johnson House.

When: Friday June 20th at 8:00 pm
Where: The Depot at Johnson House, Half Moon Bay 110 Higgins Purisima Road
Donation: $6.00

“A fresh and vibrant surprise. A film that pulsates with consistent energy, humor and an unexpected pathos. There have not been many films that succeed in capturing the reality of the gypsy life, and Gadjo Dilo works beautifully. It’s a classic fish-out-of-water story which miraculously evolves into a boisterous, sometimes comic look at a particular Romanian tribe.” Paul Fischer Urban Cinefile

Director Tony Gatlif’s award-winning film about a young French man trying to come to terms with his father’s death. Searching for clues about his distant Dad he travels to Romania hoping to meet the reclusive Nora Luca, a legendary gypsy singer whose music was his father’s greatest obsession.

In hopes of tracking down the diva he ingratiates himself with the local Gypsy community. Initially suspicious of the stranger, the villagers gradually come to accept him. He, in turn, falls in love with beautiful, spirited gypsy dancer. The film’s complex story line weaves around the couple’s affair, revealing the rich world of gypsy custom and musical culture.

“The performances are all startling, from the superb work of French actor Romain Duris, the magnificent Isidor Serban, who is hypnotic as the elderly gypsy leader with a lust for life, and the seductive, earthy and foul-mouthed Rona Hartner who lights up the screen as the sensuous Sabrina. All in all, an exhilarating experience not to be missed.” Paul Fischer

* Winner of the Caesar Prize for Best Music for a Film *

For more info and a streaming video trailer see: www.HMBFilm.org

Warning: This film features adult themes and language

Films 'to shatter myths' surrounding Gypsy and Traveller communities

Published by Jon Land for 24dash.com in Housing , Communities , Local Government on Monday 7th April 2008 - 9:26am

A unique set of films exploring views, myths and misconceptions about Gypsy and Traveller communities has been developed by four Regional Assemblies.

The films 'Somewhere to Live' were specially commissioned to support consultation on new Gypsy and Traveller caravan sites in the Regional Assembly areas covering East of England, South East, North West and West Midlands.

Each of the four Assemblies are updating their long term planning framework (Regional Spatial Strategy) to address Gypsy and Traveller needs, responding to concerns, that a shortage of permanent sites is increasing illegal camping.

It is the first time that Regional Assemblies across England have collaborated in this way, sharing costs and ideas to create an innovative approach to consultation. The films tackle controversial views upfront, giving an insight into both public perceptions and Gypsy and Traveller lifestyles.

East of England is the first region to launch its film as part of its public consultation which recommends 1,187 more Gypsy and Traveller caravan pitches by 2011.

East of England Regional Assembly Chairman Councillor John Reynolds said: "The film brings a human angle to the difficult and controversial issue of planning for Gypsies and Travellers.

"This is a unique way of informing the public, including hard to reach groups and facilitating engagement with council members, as Assemblies develop policy on addressing the shortage of legal stopping places for Gypsies and Travellers. It is important to improve access to services and facilities that most take for granted."

The films include region-specific views from members of the public, Gypsies, Travellers and their neighbours.

In addition, the films share interviews with Romany journalist Jake Bowers and Gypsy student Christina who explain myths, culture, public perceptions and the need for legal sites that give people access to education and healthcare.

The film has also been entered for a 2008 Royal Town Planning Institute award for Equality and Diversity.

Production of the film was managed by the South East England Regional Assembly and undertaken by production company @Voytek.