Gypsy Blood: a story of Fathers, Sons and Fists – out now on DVD

Gypsy Blood

Gypsy Blood examines the sometimes brutal and often violent culture that gypsy fathers hand on to their sons.

Filmed over two years by award-winning photographer Leo Maguire Gypsy Blood is an intimate portrait of two proud families, their fight for respect and the price they pay in cycles of revenge that can erupt into sudden and terrifying violence.

The Doherty’s are Irish Traveller royalty. While Hughie Doherty, becomes embroiled in a fight to defend his family’s name, his son Francie, is caught between two worlds, learning to read at primary school while learning to fight with his fists at home.

Fred Butcher is Romany but torn between the gypsy fighting tradition and his love as a father. His son, Freddy Cole, is a sensitive child, terrified his father will one day not return from a fight.

Gypsy Blood originally aired on Channel 4 in 2012 to huge critical acclaim and is a haunting study of masculinity and violence, laying bare the uneasy relationship gypsy men have with their bare-knuckle traditions.

Don’t miss one of the best feature length documentaries the UK has ever produced in Gypsy Blood out now.


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