Coming and going
Sussex Gypsies George Lister and Greg Yates visit the Romany pilgrimage to Saint Maries De La Mer
The history of Britain’s Gypsy and Traveller community is explored in a new film as the community prepares to celebrate it’s second annual Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History Month
Gypsy and Traveller history and culture is so wide ranging and so diverse, that anyone wanting to capture it gets dizzy with the range of people, places and events that all cry out to be included. But a new film from Sussex has attempted to do just that.
Filmed in and around Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History Month in 2008, Coming and Going takes a broad look at Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History. From Appleby Horse fair to the Gypsy pilgrimage to Sainte Marie de la Mer, the film weaves together the colour and iron resolve of Gypsy people together with parts of our history that have shaped who we are today. From the holocaust in which hundreds of thousands of Gypsies and Travellers were exterminated, to the battlefields of France where many more died defending freedom, the film features interviews with Gypsy and Traveller people that have researched and kept Gypsy and Traveller history culture alive.
‘Coming and Going’ is the original concept of Jackie Whitford, Head of the East Sussex Traveller Education Team who produced the film with alembic.tv. The programme is dedicated to Maurice McMahon who inspired the title of the film when he said ‘ if you don’t know where you’ve come from don’t know where you’re going’. Sadly, Maurice died in a road accident shortly after being interviewed. He appears in the DVD together with his grandfather Aaron Devall.
Watch these exclusive clips from Coming and Coming:
Gypsy Historian Janet Keet-Black visits the Gypsy war graves in France
Gypsy wagon builder Aaron Devall visits the Romany Experience at Paulton’s Park
Copies of the ‘Coming and Going’ DVD costs £20 and can be ordered from:
East Sussex Traveller Education Service
C/O Marshlands Primary School,
Marshfoot Lane. Hailsham
East Sussex. BN27 2PH
email: jackie.whitford@eastsussex.gov.uk