BEO - Basque Film Series

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

Next Movie


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


Peloata Vasca	Burgos Trial	Death of Mikel	Running out of Time