BEO - Basque Film Series


The Next Link Building Sustainable Communities With Special Guests Tim Kahn & Marcia Barinaga

Lehen eta Oraingo Artzaintza Sheepherding Then & Now
The Basque Educational Organization opens the Spring 2012 Basque Film Series with a special screening of the documentary “The Last Link”, which will be introduced by the film’s Executive Producer Tim Kahn, who will also discuss what has transpired since the film’s premiere in 2003. After the screening, Marcia Barinaga will give a presentation on the Barinaga Ranch, located in Marin County, and its system of raising sheep in a sustainable & environmentally friendly way and its use of ancient shepherding and cheese making traditions from her Basque family and ancestors. The BEO will host a meet and greet reception before the screening. To attend, please RSVP to Nicole Sorhondo at 415-285-0748 or at Info@BasqueEd.org by February 27th.

The Last Link
	Tender, tragic, and hopeful, The Last Link is a visual elegant documentary exploring the rapidly shrinking world of family-based agriculture in the United States. Narrated by Willie Nelson, The Last Link offers up a cast of delightful and inspirational characters who join to tell the story of Basque and Bearnais immigration to the United States, the struggles of the past, and what’s at stake for the future. The Last Link shows the shepherds and their descendants as a proud and passionate people, whose spiritual and physical vitality is shaped by their connection to the mountains, regardless of whether they are the French Pyrénées or Wyoming’s Bighorn Mountains. Tempered by extremes of weather and demands of self-reliance, they remain linked to an Old World Culture that offers a glimpse into the past where one can feel time, marked by ever-changing patterns of seasonal cycles. Interviews with immigrants and their descendants in Wyoming and California graphically illustrate the role of community in sustaining a transplanted identity within a larger Western American culture. Traveling with Pete Camino, The Last Link examines the decline of this agricultural lifestyle as it becomes less profitable in a world of high technology and more mechanized practices. A look at both the Old and New Worlds reveals this as a threat to the maintenance of a collective knowledge of values and life-lessons acquired through an intimate connection with the land.

2003, directed by Ben Kahn, 54 minutes, color,

in English, Euskara, French with English subtitles.

With Special Guests

Executive Producer Tim Kahn

Marcia Barinaga - Owner & Cheese Maker of Barinaga Ranch


	The bombing & destruction of Gernika was an aerial attack on April 26th, l937, during the Spanish Civil War by the German Luftwaffe squadron known as the Condor Legion against the Basque city of Gernika. It was, at the time, the largest aerial bombardment of a town. On the 75th anniversary of this important event in Basque history and heritage, the Basque Educational Organization presents a special screening of the documentary "The Bombing of Gernika", which will be hosted by visiting scholar Joseba Inaki Lopez de Luzuriaga of Stanford University. Mr. Luzuriaga will introduce the film, give background information on the historical context and will moderate a discussion session after the screenings.

	The name of “Guernica” holds a significance throughout the world, associated as it is with Picasso’s painting, which has come to symbolize the horrors of war. It has also taken on connotations in the world of ideas and of concepts; it has become an icon and a symbol. Today, we at last have the necessary resources to tell the definitive version of these events, the truth behind the symbol, using the testimony of the last remaining witnesses; research in photographic and film archives – including color pictures; expert opinions; testimonies from pilots and a CGI reconstruction of the bombing, based on historical data.

2007, directed by Alberto Rojo, 56 minutes, color,

in English.

Presented by Joseba Inaki Lopez de Luzuriaga - Stanford University

Daisy Cutter

Daisy Cutter tells the story of a ten year old girl, Zaira, who (like many others) experiences the injustice of war, with the perspective that her tender and naive eyes allow her. Zaira gathers daisies every day for a friend that she misses; so as not to forget him, so as not to lose him.

2010, directed by Enrique García & Rubén Salazar, 7 minutes, no dialogue

Both films!