The Basque Educational Organization in conjunction with the Basque Cultural Center presents The Basque Film Series.  The series began in 2004, with the screening of Julio Medem's "La Pelota Vasca", and continues in 2008.   The screenings will be hosted by Dr. Pedro Oiarzabal, of the University of Nevada at Reno, who will introduce the films, give background information on the directors and on the historical context and will moderate a discussion session after the screenings.

Dr. Oiarzabal

Introduction

2008 Program

Next Movie

2007 Program

2006 Program

2005 Program

More on Basque Cinema

Basque Cinema - an introduction

Peloata Vasca

Burgos Trial

Death of Mikel

Running out of Time

The controversy engendered by Julio Medem's Basque Ball: The Skin Against the Stone is only the latest bout in a struggle to represent and explore Basque identity on film. Early travelogues celebrated a unique landscape and heritage that had bred an indomitable race, and this Romantic notion of a historically, linguistically and culturally isolated nation in mainland Europe, with provinces spilling either side of the Pyrenees, would also charm foreign writers and film-makers such as Orson Welles.

However, following the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), hagiography was countered by the oppressive policies and tactics of Franco's dictatorship (1939-75), which forbade the right of assembly and the use of the Basque language of Euskera, and drove dissenters into private film clubs that were a cover for political debate. Consequently, the union of political thought and action with film theory and practice propagated a forceful faith in documentary films as instruments of record and propaganda.

Meanwhile, the distinctive delights of Basque hospitality led to the establishment of the San Sebastian Film Festival in 1953, and various short film and documentary festivals followed. Basque documentarists sought to express the contrast and discord that defined their relationship with the centralized Francoist film industry and, though deprived of Euskera, their juxtaposition of sounds and images created an equivalent language of conflict that culminated in the introspective Ama Lur (1968). Made in the same year that saw an escalation in the violence that has overshadowed the development of the modern Basque Country, Ama Lur inspired many, both politically and artistically, to the extent that, following the end of the dictatorship, the first autonomous Basque government promptly dedicated 5% of its entire budget to the task of nation-building through revival of the indigenous film industry.

Many period epics followed, made by film-makers who took advantage of generous subsidies, and new production companies emerged. The Ikuska documentary series made by Bertan Filmeak provided apprenticeships for such as Imanol Uribe, whose progression through documentary, re-enactment and fiction dominated, influenced - and arguably skewed too much towards terrorism - the cinematic representation of the Basque Country. Other takes on Basque social themes and concerns, such as drug abuse and urban alienation, suggest the universal nature of these problems; but optimism, though rare, is not withheld.

Rob Stone

British Film Institute

Vacas

Segovia Breakout

Yoyes

2008 Program

2007 Program

2004, directed by Miguel Courtois 125 min, color, in Spanish with English subtitles.

See the Trailer                 El Lobo Website

Eramos Pocos

When his wife leaves him, Joaquín turns to his son to help him bring his mother-in-law out of a home to do the housework.

2005, directed by Borja Korbeaga, 15 min, color, in Spanish with English subtitles.

2006 Program

Obaba

Set in a mythical region of the Basque Country, Obaba creates a beautifully enigmatic world of its own. A young film student, Lurdes (Barbara Lennie), goes to Obaba on a class assignment with her video camera to capture the reality of the town and its people. This shouldn't be so difficult: It's a small town where people are willing to talk and the doors are open. But the more people Lurdes meets and befriends and the more stories she hears, the stranger and more mysterious things become. The people of Obaba are trapped in the past, telling stories from their childhood that involve one another in a complicated web of feelings and relationships. 
Through them and Miguel, a happy and easy-going young man Lurdes strikes up a close friendship with, Lurdes starts to know small pieces of their lives from before, when they were children or adults, and from now, when they barely have any dreams. These are small pieces of lives that lead to passions, envies and violence. Like the young teacher, who walks her loneliness through the streets of Obaba; or the adolescent Esteban, who receives love letters in cream-colored envelopes. With all this, Lurdes tries to reconstruct the puzzle that gives sense to their lives and that will allow her to catch the reality with her video camera. But there is always something missing, something that escapes, and something she can not understand. Like the mysterious behavior of the lizards that live in Obaba. Nobody, not even Lurdes’ camera, is able to solve this mystery. 

A journey into the soul of the Basque country, Obaba is based on the popular short story collection Obabakoak by Basque writer Bernardo Atxaga and was the official 2006 Acadamy Awards Oscar candidate from Spain.

2005, directed by Montxo Armendariz, 107 min, color, in Spanish with English subtitles.

See the Trailer

Choque

A couple in their late twenties discovers and underground drag racing track... 

2005, directed by Nacho Vigalondo, 10 min, color, in Spanish with English subtitles.

2005 Program

Tasio

"Tasio” tells a based-on-fact story of a way of life known by very few, that of a charcoal-maker and poacher living at the edge of the law and society in the Basque province of Navarre. The movie is based on the life of Tasio Ochoa, a man who film director Montxo Armendáriz met while making a documentary about the charcoal makers (“Nafarroako ikazkinak,” 1981) of Navarre. Armendáriz, who is also from Navarre, felt a kinship to Tasio's fiercely independent spirit. The movie is beautifully filmed by cinematographer José Luis Alcaine. The scenes of the mountains and forests where Tasio makes his living are lovingly depicted. They are depicted in a way which shows their permanence in relation to the transient humans who wander this landscape. The glowing cinematography also shows the fondness that both Tasio and the film's director, Armendáriz, have for this part of Euskal Herria.

1984, directed by Montxo Armendariz, 95 min, color, in Spanish with English subtitles.

Friday, August 26th, 7:30pm, Basque Cultural Center

Free Admission. 

A Los Cuatro Vientos

(Lauaxeta)

"A Los Cuatro Vientos (Lauaxeta) / To the Four Winds” - Semi-fictional account of Estaban Urkiaga, Basque poet, journalist and major in Basque Army during Spanish Civil War, particularly events of 1937 leading up to Urkiaga's execution by Falangists.

1987, directed by Jose A. Zorrilla, 78 min, color, in Spanish with English subtitles.

Friday, September 23rd, 7:30pm, Basque Cultural Center

Free Admission. 

El Misterio Galindez

“El Misterio Galíndez / The Galíndez Mystery” - Arriving in Spain to work on her doctoral thesis about Galíndez, Muriel Colber receives a tip that leads her to the last people to have seen him alive. She discovers the controversy he caused in the Dominican Republic by publishing an exposé of Trujillo’s dictatorship -- a work which became a major rallying point for Trujillo’s opponents -- and travels from Spain to the Dominican Republic and Miami to uncover the secret behind his untimely demise. Unwittingly, she has opened a Pandora’s Box and those responsible for Galíndez’s death are determined to keep their identities under wraps. 

Galíndez was an nationalist from the Basque Country who had to leave Spain in 1939, when Republicans lost the Civil War. He lived first in Santo Domingo and later went to New York as a University Professor. Just after publishing his Thesis about Trujillo as a book, he was kidnapped and disappeared. His body was never found.

2003, directed by Gerardo Herrero, 126 min, color, in English & Spanish.

Saturday, October 22nd, 7:30pm, Basque Cultural Center

Free Admission.