Bare knuckle documentary Gypsy Blood comes to DVD in January

Most of what we see on TV about the UK traveller community involves caravans and some very colourful and revealing dress, so Channel 4 took us to the more violent side with the controversial documentary Gypsy Blood.

Getting a release on DVD courtesy of Kaleidoscope Home Entertainment, this is out to buy from 7th January next year for a recommended retail price of £15.99. The runtime is 82 minutes and the extras include 13 minutes of deleted scenes.

The film examines the sometimes brutal and often violent culture that gypsy fathers hand on to their sons. Shot over two years by award-winning photographer Leo Maguire, it 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.

Synopsis and trailer follow...

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 earlier this year 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.