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Poster for Searching for the 4th Nail
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Released
2009 · FILM

Searching for the 4th Nail

Directed by
Written by
Documentary

Synopsis

Follow George Eli, an American Gypsy, as he turns his camera on the secret life of his Romani culture. As we see through his 8mm family footage, growing up Gypsy was 'a pretty good life-' carefree and lawless. Eli's journey begins when his two sons ask 'what does it mean to be a Gypsy?" He has no clear answer beyond what he's learned from movies and TV. Eli and his sons begin a quest for the truth. City by city, the roots of old ways begin to reveal themselves as an intricate tapestry of tradition - and oppression. Eli's sons light up the screen with their youthful perspective on very heavy subjects. From the Holocaust Museum to Hollywood, from ancient India to Ellis Island. George and his sons are always fun on screen, although they confront negative stereotypes and uncover a terrible history of persecution, finally realizing that the only way out is the main thing that their Gypsy community avoids: conventional education.

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How many hands made this film

The scale of the collaboration

Principal cast & crew: 6

These are the principals we have on file — the full crew ran to the hundreds. Every film this size was made by far more hands than any credits list ever names.

Why a floor?

This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.

Craft leads on file

Edited by Nikhil MelnechukShot by Michal Trzaska

Box Office

2009 · Box office

Produced on a $52 budget

Production budget

$52

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