Experiencing Interruptions?

Kings Of Our Own Right

For one week of the year, in the depths of Cumbria, a small town is transformed by the largest gathering of Romas, Gypsies and Travellers in Europe. Appleby is consumed by the fair; where since 1775 horses are exchanged, fortunes told, and loved ones reunited. In 2021, the Home Secretary drafted the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, which threatens to persecute Gypsies, Romas and Travellers for their nomadic culture. This short film captures Appleby Horse Fair on the eve of the implementation of this new legislation. Taking on a non-linear narrative, this immersive picture of Appleby Horse Fair is a portrait of a community and culture in flux, united in their profound connection to the fair and kinship with their community.

  • Milla Lewis
    Director
  • Sabrina Jones
    Director
  • Milla Lewis
    Producer
  • Sabrina Jones
    Producer
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Experimental, Short
  • Genres:
    Community, poetic, Participatory
  • Runtime:
    8 minutes 42 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    July 27, 2022
  • Production Budget:
    300 GBP
  • Country of Origin:
    United Kingdom
  • Country of Filming:
    United Kingdom
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital (4K)
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Milla Lewis, Sabrina Jones

Sabrina Jones is a filmmaker and anthropologist interested in rituals, storytelling and the boundaries between fact and fiction. Sabrina is currently completing an MA in Visual Anthropology.

Since 2020, Sabrina has co-directed ‘Beyond The Red Light’, a documentary about the sex workers rights movement in North Macedonia. Following Lila, a trans sex worker, ‘Beyond The Red Light’ seeks to interrogate society’s relationship with sex and sex work. Sabrina is currently directing a documentary on the experience and expression of death on the coast of Western Ireland.

Milla Lewis is a director and cinematographer whose work focuses on the intersection of history, memory and myth. Drawn to the discord between the stories that form us and the stories we tell ourselves, her films touch on themes including sexuality, belonging, and dreams as a means of exploring darker subliminal worlds.

Starting out as an award-winning photographer, she moved to filmmaking in 2020 and was selected as the recipient of the Directing Mentorship Programme at the prestigious Polish National Film School in Łódź in 2021, where she wrote and directed Mercy, a short narrative exploring sexual alienation. She is currently co-directing Beyond The Red Light, a documentary following a trans sex worker fighting for decriminalisation in North Macedonia.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Appleby’s Horse Fair is the largest and oldest fair in Europe, with members of the community travelling at times for months to attend the event. Whilst the buying and selling of horses is the main custom, the fair provides a rooted space for a nomadic group to celebrate their culture, identity, and legacy. Touching on the fair’s history, legacy and potential futures, Kings Of Our Own Right is a gentle exploration of belonging and acceptance.

For centuries, stories and lives of Gypsies and Travelling people have remained peripheral to Britain’s cultural identity. Heavily vilified in the media, nomadic communities have become socially ostracised, and are seen as crude and criminal. The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, drafted by the Home Office in March 2021, reinforces these harmful narratives while undermining the core nomadic values of Gypsies and Travellers. Proposed on the grounds of preserving the countryside for homeowners, walkers and societal peace, the bill will seize the homes of Gypsies and Travellers if they stop on land that is not designated for them, including at Appleby.

Under threat from prohibitive laws, we present a portrait of Appleby’s Horse Fair which captures the beauty of a community and its rituals often stigmatised by media and policy. Prioritising the theatre of the fair, revering the subtle drama that courses throughout; we take our audience on a journey through Appleby’s roads and fields, as day turns to night, meeting gypsies and travellers speaking profoundly about what belonging means and feels like.

In our ever polarised societies, gypsy and travelling customs present themselves as a radical alternative, representing “a kind of boundary against the corporate, bureaucratic imposition of cultural norms.” We want to honour this in our film, and preserve an image of Appleby Horse Fair which may never exist in the same way again.