Ladbury PR

Tune in, clue up: The Real Gypsy, Roma and Traveller TV programmes are here

This May and June, Community Channel is taking its viewers on a journey to discover the real lives and cultures, hopes and aspirations, problems and challenges of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Communities around UK and Europe.

The Community Channel, Britain’s only national channel dedicated to giving a voice to marginalised and underrepresented communities, is screening over forty documentaries from award winning filmmakers that cover the themes of youth, education, health, culture, art and migration, dispelling myths that we are used to hearing.

Moving away from the Big Fat….stereotype, we hear from Damian Le Bas in Access All Areas, about his journey to Oxford University while retaining his Gypsy identity. We are treated to a rare last interview with Mario Maya - the world’s most famous Flamenco dancer, explaining how it was the Gitano (Spanish Gypsies) who evolved the historical dance in The Maya Family. We meet Papuscza, an influential Polish Roma poet, and visit the annual Appleby Horse Fair in Cumbria, where Travellers and Gypsies meet to trade horses and catch up on gossip.

We follow the captivating love story between two young Roma men in Czech Republic, falling in love while battling the double discrimination against Romas and Gays in Roma Boys. And in Lunik IX, British Roma filmamker Artur Conka visits the estate he grew up in, watching in horror as the pleasant housing near a forest that he loved gradually became neglected by the authorities leaving the local Roma community without gas, electricity or running water.

This series of films is an important and unique chance to find out more about the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities that are an integral part of our culture and society. Watch on Sky, Freeview, BT Vision, Virgin or BBC iPlayer 6 May - 14 June and find out more at www.communitychannel.org.