The volume “Antigypsyism and Film / Antiziganismus und Film” edited by Radmila Mladenova, Tobias von Borcke, Pavel Brunssen, Markus End and Anja Reuss has been published in bookshops and is also available online as pdf and can be read as html version:
https://doi.org/10.17885/heiup.650
The volume documents the international symposium, which the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma in cooperation with the Society for Antigypsyism Research had held before the Berlinale in February 2018 in Berlin. The immediate occasion was the broadcast of the film “Nelly’s Adventure”, which the Central Council had criticised as massively antigypsyist, but which was nevertheless broadcast by KIKA and SWR.
About the conference proceedings: Antigypsyism is so normal for the European eye that hardly anyone had the idea to ask why ‘Gypsies’ should always be depicted as ‘black’ in the film, meta-phorically or not so metaphorically. Gypsy hostility is so natural to the screen that filmmakers do not hesitate to justify their choice with dramaturgical arguments. Furthermore, the exchange of arguments and official statements for and against antigypsyist depictions in films has revealed certain blind spots in the public discussion in Germany as well as the gaping gap in research at the interface of Antigypsyism and film studies. It is necessary to shed light on the normality of Antigypsyism and to show its omnipresence in national cinemas in Europe and beyond.
In order to examine this problem from different perspectives, scientists and young researchers, filmmakers and human rights activists – Roma as well as non-Roma – gathered in Berlin in 2018 for the international conference: ” Antigypsyism and Film”. They presented their research results, shared personal testimonies and discussed films. The present bilingual volume documents this conference, which is unique in its form so far.
The conference volume comprises scientific articles and essays as well as interviews with filmmakers, divided into four thematic sections: Antigypsyism in Film, Questions of Ethics, Strategies of Subversion and Antigypsyism in Relation to Other Resentments.