SYNOPSIS

American Gypsy: a stranger in everybody's land is a film about a people struggling between the cultures of ancient India and modern America. It is the story about a family at the heart of this battle. Is a film about the advantages and disadvantages of assimilation. How do we hold onto enough of our culture that we're individuals at the same time as blending in enough that we can take advantage of the society that we live in? (Jasmine Dellal)

The Marks family stepped into the limelight in 1986 after a controversial police raid of their homes, during which police destroyed sacred items, searched babies' diapers, body-searched women, removed decorative gold finger nails from their hands and seized a large amount of cash - without a valid search warrant. The Marks were charged with trafficking in stolen goods, but they claim they were suspected only because of racist assumptions that Gypsies are born thieves.

Nevertheless, Jimmy Marks and his father, Grover, wanted respect for their heritage and an end to what they felt was police harassment. So, like members of other American minorities, they decided to fight the system. As a result, the family has been ostracized by their own people; the rest of Spokane's Romani community left town to avoid associating with the Marks family. After some years, Jimmy began to rant about the case, which he saw as the only way for his family to regain acceptance among his people. Jimmy Marks has been called "the Gypsy equivalent to Rodney King," because his landmark civil rights battle against the Spokane police helped demonstrate the widespread prejudice faced by Romani people. He has also been called a madman, because he was consumed by this obsession. For this documentary, the Marks family allowed their lives to be captured on camera over the course of five years - long enough to see their ups and downs, moments of intimacy and public grandeur, and a rollercoaster of emotions.

In this film, we see that secrecy has helped keep Romani culture as distinct as that of many new immigrants.

We meet Ian Hancock, an English Rom who has spent much of his life representing his people in academic and political settings. In Minneapolis, we meet Bill Duna, a jazz musician whose grandparents emigrated from Hungary to play at the 1880 Chicago World's Fair.

In this documentary, the Marks' story weaves together: poetry, music, home movies, historical archives, news flashes, footage, interviews and personal stories.This is a poignant story, illustrating some of the most painful ambiguities of immigration, of culture clashes and of modern America.

TECHNICAL DATA

Director: Jasmine Delllal

Script: Jasmine Delllal
Producer: Jasmine Delllal
Cast: William Duna, Prof. Ian Hancock, Grover Marks, Jane Marks, Jimmy Marks and Lippie Marks
Editors: Jasmine Dellal, Joseph De Francesco and Roko Belic
Cinematography: Michele Zaccheo
Music: John Filcich
Runtime: 80 min. Color. Language: English/Spanish/Romani. Subtitles : Spanish.

DIRECTOR

BIOGRAPHY
Jasmine Dellal grew up in the UK, studied in the US but also spent much of her childhood in India, where her grandmother lives. Jasmine received her Bacherlors Degree in Modern Languages (French and Spanish language & literature) from Balliol College, Oxford University. In 1993, Dellal completed a Master´s degree in Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley, where she studied under the acclaimed documentarian Marlon Riggs with whom she worked on his final feature Black Is... Black Ain´t.

Also, while she was at Berkeley, Dellal produced, directed and edited In His Own Image, a profile of a homeless photographer, for which she won a student Emmy Award. After that, she co-produced/directed She Says, a half-hour documentary about strong American women.

In 1999 Dellal directed, produced, wrote & edited her first feature documentary American Gypsy: a stranger in everybody´s land. It is the story about a family at the heart of the battle between the cultures of ancient India and modern America. In 2006 she directed and producecd her last sucess feature When the Road Bends: Tales of a Gypsy Caravan, a documentary about several kind of gypsies music bands from all the world.

Finally, she moved from San Francisco to New York, where she makes films and runs her company Little Dust Productions. Now based in New York, she teaches ocassional classes in the USA and Europe, and enjoys guiding new directors to create their own films.


FILMOGRAPHY
• In his own Image (1991)
• She Says (1993)
• American Gypsy: A stranger in Everybody's Land (1999) (Director, Producer, Writer and Editor)
• Beauty School (2004) (Producer)
• When the Road Bends: Tales of a Gypsy Caravan (2006) (Director and Producer)
• Freedom Writers