Documentary films by Roma about Roma screen in Vienna

How can one make a film about coexistence between non-Romani and Romani people without supporting prejudices or stereotypes and without participating in the classic division of people into good and evil, culprits and victims? Such a task might seem hard even for experienced filmmakers, but Romani filmmakers from several different European countries evidently seem to have risen to the challenge.
The short documentary films by Romani directors were screened all together for the first time at Wien Museum Karlsplatz as part of an exhibition called "Romane Thana. Places of the Roma and Sinti". The six films selected for the program from the "Europe - A Homeland for the Roma" project were screened in collaboration with the Erste Stiftung foundation and the Transitions Online organization on 10 and 11 March.
Romani directors from the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia presented films that reflect the events going on around them, the everyday and the extraordinary lives of Romani people, failures and positive role models, and historical events that still cast a shadow on the contemporary lives of Romani people to this day. Two short films were chosen to represent the Czech Republic, "Because There is Hope" (Protože je naděje) and "Shadows of the Romani Holocaust" (Stíny romského holokaustu).
While the first of these films is, as its title suggests, a positive one, the second engenders a sense of hopelessness while raising questions. In the first film, Romani filmmakers František Bikár, Vera Lacková, Martin Grinvalský and Adéla Zicháčková have captured the image of a Romani man doing his best to "nurture our young Roma" in a genuinely unusual way.
The film's protagonist, Jožka Miker, supports a group of Romani youth with a taste for rapping, positively supporting their future paths. The boys do not have easy lives because they live in a place that is excluded both socially and spatially, which does not give them much of an opportunity for a good start, but they have no lack of spirit and a thirst to move forward.
"Shadows of the Romani Holocaust" tells the story of the site of the former "gypsy camp" at Lety by Písek, which was created during the Second World War. Today an industrial pig farm stands on the site.
Relatives of the victims and survivors of the camp view the presence of the farm on this site as incomprehensible and very painful - although a memorial to the Romani Holocaust has been erected to mark a mass grave site where some victims of the camp were buried, they consider the stench of the pigs that travels to the memorial from the site of the former camp to be dishonorable. The Czech Government, however, is not inclined to move the farm.
"Shadows of the Romani Holocaust" was made under the direction of producer Kelly Whalen from the University of Miami and Renata Berkyová. All of the documentary films from the five countries (Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia) were created as part of the "Europe: A Homeland for the Roma" project, in which the ROMEA public benefit corporation was also involved.
Don't miss:
- Interview with director of documentary film about Romani girls
- Will Czech documentary about Romani activist unite, or divide?
- Czech director of documentary about quintuplets: There is truth on both sides
- Documentary film review: "All My Children"
- Czech documentary by Roma about Roma celebrates success at French Institute
- Czech festival gives highest prize to documentary about racist murders of Roma in Hungary
- VIDEO: Discussion after screening of documentary film “Life and Death in Tanvald”
- Czech filmmakers finish documentary about shooting death of Romani man
- Romedia film nominated for Al-Jazeera's International Documentary Film Festival
- Documentary about blockade of neo-Nazi march in Brno, Czech Republic premieres next month
- Documentary about three Roma women in politics premieres at Khamoro Festival in Prague
- Integration through children's eyes: Documentary film "Our School" shows the snags in desegregation
- "Scars of Racism": CNN documentary gently shows the cost of indifference to neo-Nazism
- Documentary on the attempted neo-Nazi pogrom at Janov
- Documentary films on SEE social, political and human rights issues
Related articles:
- Interview with Romani student at Czech university who aims to become a diplomat
- England: Documentary film Pongo Calling, about Romani émigrés from the Czech Republic and Slovakia, premieres tomorrow at DocFest
- Czech artists donate works to charity auction for Romani scholarships
- Romani kickboxer Václav Sivák unequivocally wins the Oktagon Underground MMA fight in a packed O2 Arena in the Czech Republic
- Czech Education Minister: Situation at school that hired private security because of disruptive pupils has been blown out of proportion, new resources can help
- Czech primary school hires private security, ROMEA organization offers aid to the management
- Michal Mižigár: What myths exist about World Roma Day and what is the reality?
- European Parliament President warns of growing antigypsyism and sends greetings on World Roma Day
- Czech and international organizations support bereaved family with Constitutional Court complaint over death of Stanislav Tomáš in police custody
- Czech Police say prisoner killed himself, his relatives don't believe it, dozens of Romani community members protest outside the prison
- Czech region now has two local platforms hoping to connect pro-Roma and Roma organizations with local administrations and state institutions
- "How I Became a Partisan": Vera Lacková's documentary about Romani partisans screened at Czech film festival