Documentary Production and Distribution News

New Documentary Film Gypsyland is Forging New Collaborations

By StudentFilmmakers.com
posted Dec 20, 2012, 14:24

In these days of double dip recession and misrepresentations by the media, funding and distribution for films is changing. A new documentary film entitled Gypsyland is forging new collaborations. The filmmakers are using the Kickstarter crowd-funding platform to fund the project. Martyn Bray the films director says, "Crowd funding will allow the Romani community to get involved with the creative process and have a direct say in whether this film gets made or not."

(London, United Kingdom) Every year the sleepy seaside town of Les Saints Maries de-la-Mer hosts the Gypsy pilgrimage. Local mayor Roland Chassain who grew up in Saint Maries governs the town. The mayor is a vociferous opponent of the Roma. The aim of this documentary is to discover alongside a timeline of present persecution the roots that bind the community. Martyn remembers, "When we started out making the documentary the Romani people were once again being threatened. President Sarkozy had offered them €300 each to leave France voluntarily. Those who declined his offer had to watch while bulldozers destroyed their homes."

The heart of this exciting documentary is the sacred ceremony itself, where the effigy of the Romani patron Saint Sarah and the Christian Saints Mary Jacobe and Mary Salome are lowered into the church on vines garlanded with flowers to the cry of "Vive Sainte Sara." Accompanied by the guard of the Camargue on graceful chalk white horses, she is taken to the sea with all of the jostling procession to bless the azure blue waters.

In the words of Esmerelda Romanez president of The Federation of Cale, "I am doing what my parents did, what my grandparents did, what their parents did. It is in my soul to come to St Maries de- la- Mer, this land of the gypsies."

The film continues following the Diaspora from India as outlined by Professor Ian Hancock, looking for St Sarah's trail in an ancient medieval past.

Resources:

www.kickstarter.com/projects/652400728/gypsyland-documentary
www.gypsyland.co.uk