ABATA – PIGEON HUNTERS

DOCUMENTARY
Showing: AUGUST 29, SFBCC, SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO

SYNOPSIS:

In 1955, fascinated by the ingenious hunting of pigeons with wooden paddles and nets, Orson Welles directed the documentary The Land of Basques. Today, from a borda on the border between Navarre and France, Gerardo Damboriena, a veteran pigeon hunter, reveals in Basque the secrets of this tradition of more than 700 years, on the verge of extinction.

We accompany Gerardo, leader of the last generation of dove hunters in the Etxalar Valley, as he reflects on his masters, his love for the ancestral hunt, and his feeling of belonging to a vanishing culture. A story where English is learned from Basque. A story narrated by Gerardo Damboriena and Orson Welles.

2025, directed by Aner Etxebarria & Pablo Vidal, 25 minutes, color, in English, Euskara, Castilian with English Subtitles.