BFS: XALBADOR – Izana eta Izena
October 24 @ 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm PDT
Join the BEO for two short films: “Zortzitik Infinitude / Basque Cinema: A Journey through Its History” and another Basque short film, “Abata – Pigeon Hunters” as part of our partner, the San Francisco Basque Cultural Center’s Udako Besta, at:
Basque Cultural Center
599 Railroad Avenue
South San Francisco, CA
ABOUT THE FILMS
Zortzitik Infinitude, Basque Cinema: A Journey through Its History”
By means of a journey through the life of the filmmaker Benito Ansola and with the writer Miren Agur Meabe by our side, we will travel through the history of Basque cinema, from the germ of both Basque cinema and of films made in the Basque language until their present-day efflorescence. But Miren Agur Meabe won’t be alone. On this voyage, we will have magnificent assistants. Myriad eminent Basque filmmakers who have played a lead part in and witnessed its evolution will tell us its story.
2024, directed by Naia Laka Arrizubieta, 61 minutes, color, in Euskara and Spanish with English subtitles.
2024 San Sebastian International Film Festival Selection
Abata – Pigeon Hunters
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.
More information, visit HERE.