Roma Stories (Japigia GagÌ)
by Giovanni Princigalli
color, 59 min, 2003
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In Japigia, a neighborhood in the periphery of Bari, Italy, a small community of Roma (Gypsies) carve out an existence in an illegal, ramshackle encampment. The local church has offered them a piece of land with prefabricated houses, but the town hall is preventing this offer due to their own plans for a future a railway station. Continually in danger of evacuation and making a living primarily by begging for money, the Roma still manage to foster a strong community and lively social atmosphere.
Living for a one year within the community, the filmmakers extract both the emotional and anthropological details from this vibrant microcosm which remains largely hidden and ignored by its own city. Seventeen-year-old Dorina is released from an institute for minors and soon married amid much negotiating and festivities. Dainef waits for the arrival of his daughter from Romania. Young Aida dreams of becoming a model, and eleven-year-old Laura would rather go beg with her mother than go to school. Aida is taken away by Serbian Roma, and her father must decide how to take action. And throughout are the songs which were written over the course of the filming - poetic illustrations of their lives and problems on a contentious and desolate land, but a still a land where one is born, grows up, and dreams.
About The Filmmaker
Giovanni Princigalli studied Political Science at the University of Bari.
After receiving his degree, he studied screenwriting at the professional
school of Cagli followed by anthropological documentary studies at the haute
école des études and the école doctorale de cinema anthropologique of Paris
under the direction of Jean Rouch, Annie Comolli and Claudine de France,
among others. He also worked with Carl Alberto Pinelli at the International
School of Documentary Cinema. As a documentary cinematographer, his work
includes Stewart Copland’s documentation of the La Notte della Taranta
Festival featuring both pizzica (traditional music of south Italy) and
contemporary rock music. Currently he resides in Montréal, where he is
member of the CRI (centre de recherche sur l’intermedialité) and the
Critical World, a group dedicated to the study of visual anthropology and
ethnomusicology. Japigia Gagì is Princigalli's first film.
Film Festival Screenings and Awards
Second Prize, International Art Gispy Competition of Lanciano, 2003
Guangzhou International Documentary Film Festival, Canton, China, 2003
Documentary & Ethnographic Film Festival of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, 2003
First Documentary Film Festival of Le Mans, France, 2003
Week Against Racism, Cinémathèque québécoise, Quebec, Canada, 2003
Anthropological Visual Congress of University of Montreal, 2003
“Ethnographica” Section, Festival Internazioanle del Film di Potenza, Italy, 2004
Northeast Anthropological Association Conference, University of Vermont, 2004
Nafa Film Festival, Estonian National Museum, 2004
Singapore International Documentary Film Festival, 2004
Society for Visual Anthropology/American Anthropological Association Conference, San Francisco, 2004
International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival, Scotland, 2004
Fourth Festival of Visual Culture, Finland, 2004
Mediterraneo Video Festival, Italy, 2004
Semi-finalist, ANONIMUL International Film Festival, Romania, 2004
Insituto Italiano di Cultura in San Francisco, 2004
Museum of the Romanian Peasant, Bucharest, 2004
Sasä International Film Awards, Italy, 2004
Interuniversity Ethnographic Film Festival of Montreal, 2005
Itinérances, Festival Cinema d’Ales, 2005
Graduate Film Studies Association of Canada Annual Colloquium, 2005
Semana de Cinema Europeo de Bogotà, Colombia, 2005
Romani Yag Gypsy Festival, Montreal, Canada, 2005
Dams Film Festival, Rome, Italy, 2005
Kish International Documentary Film Festival, Iran, 2005
Docudays, Naples, Italy, 2005
Festival International du Documentaire de Montreal, 2006
International Festival of Ethnographic Film, Belgrade, 2007
Amnesty International screening, University of Montreal, 2007
The New York Gypsy Film Festival, New York, 2009