50 minutes, Color and B/W Sepia, Sound, 1975
The first cinéma vérité study of Gypsies (Roma) in the United States, this award-winning film ethnography depicts the culture and traditions of a Kalderas tribe of Gypsies living and working in Los Angeles. The film contrasts traditional customs with contemporary modes of survival in this often-stereotyped and misunderstood minority. It features first-person interviews with Roma, narration by Roma, and a wide range of Gypsy-American activities: a Saint's Day celebration (Slava), Easter, Christmas, wedding, fortune-telling, car repairing, music making, and dancing. The wedding of two children (Gypsy Wedding), both thirteen years old, seems to belie any discussion of change; but life has changed for these people. There is less wandering, children are receiving better educations, and men's and women's roles are adapting more and more to American lifestyles. Nevertheless, the old attitudes of prejudice, antagonism and fear that have plagued ethnic Gypsies for centuries remain, while the newer demands of modern American society must also be confronted. In English and Gypsy (Romanes) with English subtitles. Edited ethnographic film sequences not included in Gypsies: The Other Americans are available in a companion video, Gypsies: Out Takes. See Rom Wedding for an ethnographic study of another Gypsy (Rom) wedding that took place 11 years later in 1985.
Screenings
Award:
- CINE Eagle, Washington, D.C. 1976
- Margaret Mead Film Festival, New York, 1978
- Royal Anthropological Institute Film Festival, London, 1980
- Gypsy Dance Film Series, UCLA, Los Angeles, 1994
- PBS, Los Angeles, 1975
Directed and Produced by Eric Metzgar and Penelope Willens in association with the Kalderas Gypsy (Rom) Community of Los Angeles. Music: The Gypsy Swans.
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Other
Films about Gypsies (dmoz Open Directory Project)