Gypsy Davy is a 2011 documentary film, directed by Rachel Leah Jones, and co-produced by Jones and Philippe Ballaiche.
| Gypsy Davy | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Produced by | Rachel Leah Jones Philippe Bellaiche |
| Starring | David Serva Jones |
| Narrated by | Rachel Leah Jones |
| Cinematography | Philippe Bellaiche Rachel Leah Jones |
Release dates |
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Running time | 96 minutes |
| Country | Israel |
Synopsis
editThe film is narrated by the director, Rachel Leah Jones, as a letter to her father. Her father is "David Serva," who was born David Jones, in Berkeley, California. Described as a "white-boy with Alabama roots", he went on to become a well known flamenco guitarist- the first American to have a successful career in flamenco in Spain. Jones' mother, Judith Jones, was a "Brooklyn-born Jewish girl" who became a flamenco dancer. The two started a family in Berkeley, California, in the early 1970s.
Serva quickly abandoned his wife and baby daughter, and during his life and career, he amassed a total of five wives, and had children with each of them. Through her own memories and those of his other children and wives, in Gypsy Davy Jones creates a personal and political portrait of a man, and examines the legacy of an artist and his family.
Production
editGypsy Davy was in the making for about a decade. Over this time, producer-director Rachel Leah Jones filmed her father, who had left her in infancy. She also interviewed her own mother, and her half-siblings and their mothers, combining these interviews with archival footage and her own narration.[1]
The film was created with support of the Israeli New Fund for Cinema and Television.[2]
Release
editThe US premiere of the Gypsy Davy was at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.[3] The film had previously screened in Israel in 2011 at the Jerusalem Film Festival.
Select festival screenings
edit- Jerusalem International Film Festival, Israel, 2011
- Sundance Film Festival, USA, 2012
- True/False Film Festival, USA, 2012
- Visions du Reel Documentary Film Festival, Switzerland, 2012
- San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, Israel, 2012
- DMZ Docs, South Korea, 2012
- Taiwan International Documentary Film Festival, 2012
- Seville European Film Festival, Spain, 2012
- International Women's Film Festival in Rehovot, Israel, 2012
- DocNYC, USA, 2012
- Olympia Film Festival, USA, 2012
- Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema (BAFICI), Argentina, 2013
- Portland Jewish Film Festival, USA, 2013
Reception
editIn his mostly-positive review, Screen Daily reviewer Tim Grierson writes that in spite of the main premise of a famous musician's infidelity being unsurprising, "director Rachel Leah Jones’s Gypsy Davy takes that truism and wrings something thought-provoking and melancholy from it." Though Grierson dislikes the narration, he praises the film's music and finds the family-member interviews to be the strongest point of the film.[4] In his Variety review, Dennis Harvey calls the film "as engrossing as a flavorsome, twisty literary novel", lauding both the "colorful characters" and the music.[5] Calling Gypsy Davy "an interesting story and great personal work", Jonas Weir, in Vox Magazine, sums the work up as "a portrait of a man who led an irresponsible life that hurt a lot of people and his daughter’s coming to terms with who he is. David Jones doesn’t seem like a completely rotten man, just a man who has done some completely rotten things."[6]
John DeFore, on the other hand, in the Hollywood Reporter, calls the film a "self-obsessed personal voyage" that is uninteresting to anyone not involved in the story.[7]
Awards
edit| Year | Award | Category | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Cinema South Film Festival | Juliano Mer Khamis Documentary Award | Won |
| Documentary Edge Film Festival | Best Culture Vultures | Won | |
| 2012 | Doc NYC | Viewfinders Grand Jury Prize | Nominated |
| Sundance Film Festival | Jury Award: World Cinema - Documentary | Nominated | |
| International Women's Film Festival In Rehovot | Best Documentary | Won |
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "'Gypsy Davy' Writer/Director Rachel Leah Jones talks Flamenco and Filmmaking". True/False Film Fest. 2014-03-31. Retrieved 2019-09-08.
- ^ "NFCT English | Gypsy DavyNFCT English". nfct.org.il. Retrieved 2019-09-08.
- ^ "2012 Sundance Docs in Focus: GYPSY DAVY". what (not) to doc. 2012-01-11. Retrieved 2019-09-08.
- ^ Grierson, Tim (25 January 2012). "Gypsy Davy". Screen Daily. Retrieved 8 September 2019.
- ^ Harvey, Dennis (2012-01-31). "Gypsy Davy". Variety. Retrieved 2019-09-09.
- ^ Weir, Jonas (March 3, 2012). "T/F Review: Gypsy Davy". Vox Magazine. Retrieved September 9, 2019.
- ^ "Gypsy Davy: Sundance Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2019-09-09.
External links
edit- Gypsy Davy at IMDb
- "Meet the 2012 Sundance Filmmakers #18: Rachel Leah Jones", IndiWire, Jan 8, 2012
- "Documentary filmmaker Rachel Leah Jones on her film festival entry, ‘Gypsy Davy’", Sue McAllister, Mercury News, July 12, 2012