Formes vagabondes. Précarité du médium et pratiques filmiques vernaculaires en cinéma romani

Abstract

From a perspective that combines film history and the anthropology of Roma/Gypsies, this text proposes an analysis of the practices and technical constraints experienced by artists and filmmakers, both amateur and professional, in describing the mobility and living conditions of the Roma populations in Western Europe over the past 50 years. The films of this historical experience, of this life of itinerancy, of migration and circulation, necessarily match these forms of life with the particular utilitarian filmic techniques and formats. This genealogy of a Romani cinema – made of bricolage, low-resolution videos and “poor images” (Steyerl) – is a direct contribution to a visual history of Romani political movements and to recent works in the field of film studies that apprehend filmic practices as an ecosystem.

Keywords

• Film
• technique
• Roma/Gypsies
• media
• film history
• social movement