Coming to NYC’s Quad Cinema tomorrow, Friday, May 16: A PEOPLE UNCOUNTED: THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE ROMA
Aaron Yeger’s chronicle of the long-persecuted European minority debuted at the Montreal World Film Festival in 2011. Other fests have included Heartland, Mumbai, Starz Denver, Santa Barbara, Cleveland, Full Frame, Salem, Kassel Doc, Documentary Edge, Beldocs, and St Louis, among others.
Widely misunderstood, the Roma – popularly known by the pejorative “Gypsies” – were one of several groups targeted during the Nazi era, with an estimated half a million Romani exterminated in concentration camps. Still the subject of persecution and intolerance in the modern era, scapegoated throughout Europe by the rising tide of nationalism and right-wing fascistic politics, many fear the horrors of the past may too easily be revisited upon them in the future. Yeger’s strongly lensed and well-constructed film advocates for a culture that, as suggested by its title, has been too often neglected, revealing past injustices and the reality of Roma life today, drawing on the testimony of Holocaust survivors, academics, and others standing up for justice for this people.
what (not) to doc 