Black and White in Colour

In this documentary the film maker is following Roma singer Vera Bila and her band Kale and shows how she lives in Slovakia. After watching the documentary I was confused and I did not knew how to explain to myself what I just watched.
As a fly on the wall "Black and White in Colour" shows Vera Bila as the Roma singer, the mother of an adopted son, a dedicated wife but also as a woman who sabotages her own life. Although short in height, this Czech Roma lady has a great voice. I was touched by all songs featured in the documentary and I have been frantically surfing the Internet to find out more about her music.
But at times the documentary feels as a long PR video to promote Vera Bila and sometimes it feels as the scenes are manipulated either by Vera or the film maker. I felt a bit 'cheated' and I do not know if I even could blame someone for it as the objective of the documentary is not clear to me. The topic of how Romany live in Slovakia and are viewed by society is only briefly touched and brushed away by Vera which I find disappointing as I believe it would do more justice to the documentary and mostly to the Roma singer Vera Bila. Thinking more about it, I believe I have not seen one documentary that is totally 'objective' about its subject, but is edited the way the film maker wants to get his/her message across. And if the message is to show the talent of Vera Bila then that message surely comes across loud and clear.
Video clip or not, I am impressed by Vera's voice and would like to show you a musical excerpt from "Black and White in Colour".




Black and White in Colour, 1999
Director: Mira Erdevicki
Producer: David Charap