WHAT'S ON
PRINCES AMONGST MEN: THE GYPSY FILM FESTIVAL
THE RITZY, BRIXTON, JANUARY 13/14/15
THE PICTUREHOUSE, GREENWICH, JANUARY 20/21/22
Princes Amongst Men: The Gypsy Film Festival is a weekend long festival of
music and cinema organised by author Garth Cartwright
to celebrate Balkan Romani culture. Cartwright’s acclaimed book Princes
Amongst Men: Journeys With Gypsy Musicians explores Balkan Roma communities:
how they represent themselves to the world through music and are represented
by others through film.
The festival will be London’s first cinematic event focusing on Balkan
Roma. The festival’s launched on Friday, January 13, with a one-off
screening of Pavee Lackeen, the breakout hit from 2005’s London Film
Festival, about an Irish traveller family.
The weekend involves evening screenings of rarely seen classics of European
cinema and six documentaries, five of which have never had a UK cinema screening
before. Saturday evening features Emir Kusturica’s Time Of The Gypsies
– the Cannes Award winning feature set in Shutka, Macedonia’s
legendary city of Gypsies. Sunday evening features Tony Gatlif’s Latcho
Drom, a musical docu-drama of great beauty that begins in Rajasthan and
follows the Gypsies musical journey through Egypt, Turkey, Romania, Hungary,
Czech, France and Spain.
Saturday afternoon offers a trio of documentaries: Iag Bari (the story
of Romanian brass madmen Fanfare Ciocarlia); Pretty Dyana (Kosovar
Roma refugees in Belgrade) and Kosovo: Through The Eyes Of Local Rom (Gypsy)
Musicians (rare footage of the Kosovo Roma community as it existed before
the war).
Sunday afternoon offers a strongly female flavour: Black & White In
Colour (Mira Erdevicki’s majestic portrait of Czech diva Vera Bila),
Esma: The Fabulous Queen of the Gypsies (about Nobel Peace Prize nominee
and Balkan legend Esma Redzepova) and The Brass Band Village (a short
filmed in one of southern Serbia’s Roma communities).
Cartwright will host each screening and has confirmed as Festival guests Germany’s
Henry Ernst (manager of Fanfare Ciocarlia and producer/co-star of Iag Bari)
and Slovenia’s Mira Erdevicki (director Black & White In Colour).
The weekend will launch at the Ritzy with a Friday night DJ party featuring
Garth and friends playing hot Balkan tunes while free live music from 40 Thieves
Orchestra (Saturday) and Serbia’s ZiG Duo (Sunday) will be performed
in the Ritzy Café.
The Greenwich Picture House will screen Time Of The Gypsies (Friday);
Iag Bari-Black & White In Colour-Esma: The Fabulous Queen of the Gypsies
(Saturday) and Latcho Drom (Sunday) – musicians and DJs will also be
performing to accompany Greenwich screenings.
Advance booking recommended 0870-7550062