American Gypsy

A stranger in everybody’s land

American Gypsy America is home to one million Romani people, whose culture has long been mysterious to outsiders. This is the lyrical tale of one family who broke the wall of secrecy surrounding their people. A flamboyant community leader takes us deep into Romani society, with extraordinary scenes of Roma from around the world celebrating New Year in Las Vegas, the arranged marriage of teenagers and car salesmen in Stetson hats driving Cadillacs.


 American Gypsy: A Stranger in Everybody's Land
(1999) on IMDb

LaurelAtlanta Film & Video Festival - BEST DOCUMENTARY AWARD
LaurelSan Francisco International Film Festival - GRAND PRIZE – BEST DOCUMENTARY
LaurelGolden Wheel, First Roma Film Festival - BEST DOCUMENTARY PRIZE
LaurelHawaii International Film Festival - GOLDEN MAILE AWARD NOMINATION

Reviews and More

'A fascinating window… confronts the prejudice and misperception that the Roma face in this country.' - The New York Times
'Fascinating, insightful look at the consistently denigrated Gypsy culture'. - Indiewire

The Producers


Jasmine Dellal - Director

Jasmine Dellal founded Little Dust Productions in the 1990s to make artistic films with a social conscience. She’s involved in all aspects of indie film – creation to distribution and extensive social outreach. Dellal enjoys producing & consulting (from mentoring novices to working with Oscar-winners/nominees such as Roko Belic, Genghis Blues; Marco Williams; Sam Green, Utopia in Four Movements, etc). Her slate leans towards strong personal tales, ‘outsider’ cultures, music and the environment. Today she’s making a film about the passionate founders of a socially progressive forest school in South India.

Dellal directed, wrote, produced & edited her first award-winning feature documentary, AMERICAN GYPSY: a stranger in everybody’s land (arthouse theatrical release; international festivals; season’s highest ratings on PBS’s prestigious POV series). Her second feature, GYPSY CARAVAN: When The Road Bends... (backed by ITVS & Fortissimo Films) screened at over 100 festivals worldwide, won awards, showed on TV & theatrically. These became seminal works about Roma and cultural pluralism – she is also executive producer of the first documentary by a Romani American.

Dellal grew up in England and was greatly influenced by childhood trips to family in south India. At Oxford University, she read French & Spanish. At the University of California at Berkeley, she did a Masters and was honoured to work with the acclaimed Marlon Riggs on his final film BLACK IS… BLACK AIN’T. Dellal also won a student Emmy Award and co-directed a short about strong women dissociating themselves from feminism.

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