Special event

8.00 pm  21 May  2008

A film in progress

Tom Lloyd, winner of the Robin Hutt award for local film makers
offers a rare opportunity to share film making experience and gain
insights into the process of editing and decision making before
the final cut of his film Rolling Thunder.

Part documentary, part horse drawn road movie, ROLLING THUNDER is a journey
inside the world of Gypsies and Travellers on their pilgrimage to the largest horse fair in Europe .
It is a world of contrasts where many cultures cross, Gypsy, Romany, Irish, New Age,
old and young, and where the only true common denominator is the Horse
and his relationship with man.

The footage is unique in that for the last 12 years Tom has been filming
the journey while travelling with horses by road to Appleby fair.
It uncovers the history of the fair as well as
the different groups who are labelled by society as Gypsies.

With a soundtrack comprising original
and traditional material recorded round the campfire as well as studio recordings and a
collaboration with Merz, the film incorporates 8mm and DV footage covering all aspects of
the journey and fair, as well as interviews with the key players including:
Billy Welch Head Gypsy and Jake Bowers, Romani journalist and presenter of Rockker Radio,
the only radio show in Britain for Gypsies, as well as travellers and horesemen
from many other cultural backgrounds.
The film is presented by Noeline Kavanagh (Creative Director
of Macnas , Ireland ), on her first trip on the road to Appleby.

Appleby Horse Fair takes place in Cumbria in early June.
Here Romany Gypsies, Irish Travellers, New Age and a whole horse culture
merge for one week to the sound of iron tyres and horses hooves.
It is the sound of ROLLING THUNDER.