KUKK – Cultural Critique Club

The joint film club of the BBU Institute of Hungarian Ethnography and Anthropology and the Tranzit Foundation presents this year’s open seminar for the courses “Critical Cultural Research” and “Film and Anthropology.”
Mentors: Botond Bíró, Réka Erőss, Attila Seprődi.
The seminar’s academic director: Csilla Könczei, cultural researcher and associate professor.

The next film:
Balázs Gát: Gipsy Side, 2006, 50’ Hungarian documentary.
The screening will be followed by a discussion in Hungarian. The film will be introduced and moderated by Andrea Jakab, second-year university student.

In Budapest’s 8th district, the sounds of rap echo through the courtyards of Roma apartment buildings. The young people there create their own music, shape their fashion styles, and forge their identities following the example of African-American rappers. Gipsy Side offers a glimpse into the world of these young people: how they build their own “American dream,” how their songs—written, recorded, and edited at home—come to life, and how they go so far as to try to assert their copyrights. Is rap merely entertainment for Roma youth, or does it offer them a means of self-expression?

“Black stars also hang on the walls of the rooms in the Roma settlement’s houses; the defiant gazes of 50 Cent and Tupac Shakur look down on us, signaling that ‘uneven comparisons’ operate across a much broader spectrum of social practices. The young people in the settlement called themselves ‘ghetto kids’ after the African American model, which in their eyes was synonymous with coolness. It thus appears that the African American analogy operates across multiple social arenas in relation to the Roma.” (Cecília Kovai: The Roma–Hungarian Distinction and Kinship. Budapest, L’Harmattan Publishing, 2017, 58.)

Credits
Cast: Béla Ponczok Gypsy, Márió Kunu, János Tóth (Jancsika), Zoltán Szolnoki (Gorré), Roland Lázár (Luiggi), Lajos Ökrös (Mr. Joker), Ernő Gáspár, Puki, György Báder (Gyurma), Weszélyes Elemek, Nikolett Paulovics, Krisztián Fehér, Viktor Hart
Director: Balázs Gát
Screenwriter: Balázs Gát
Cinematographers: Zoltán “Kapitány” Füredi, Csaba Vándor, Balázs Gát
Editors: Balázs Gát, Balázs Antos

The event is free. Everyone is warmly welcome.