New York welcomes Basque woman filmmakers with support from the Etxepare Basque Institute

New York opens its doors to Basque cinema with a variety of activities. Two initiatives promoted by the Etxepare Basque Institute will come together in New York to analyse and shine a spotlight on Basque cinema. For four days, the CUNY Graduate Center and the Village East by Angelika cinema will become a meeting point for the Basque community in New York and locals interested in learning more about the Basque language, culture and cinema.

The Bernardo Atxaga Chair promoted by the Etxepare Basque Institute at CUNY (City University of New York) will take place from 23 to 27 at the CUNY Graduate Center. The programme will consist of lectures, readings, classes and screenings on the work of Basque women filmmakers.

The primary goal of the Bernardo Atxaga Chair is to foster research, study, and understanding of Basque literature and linguistics. It offers an PhD level programme on Basque culture, and has been inviting a guest professor or researcher to New York every year since 2017. This year’s researcher is María Pilar Rodríguez, lecturer and researcher at the University of Deusto and coordinator of the publication ‘Cineastas vascas’, published by the Basque Film Archive (Filmoteca Vasca). A broad programme will reflect on the history, characteristics and conditions of Basque women filmmakers and the themes they address in their productions.

The primary objective of this year´s programme of the Chair is to analyse Basque filmmaking based on different film genres and formats, including feature films, short films and documentaries, and subsequently carry out research on these works. The latest films by Estibaliz Urresola, Alauda Ruiz de Azúa, Berta Gaztelumendi and Rosa Zufía will serve as examples to analyse Basque cinema in recent years and the work of women filmmakers.

NYC Basque Film Festival

Organised by the Delegation of Euskadi to the United States of America and in collaboration with the Etxepare Basque Institute, a new edition of the NYC Basque Film Festival will be held in New York from 25 to 27 October. The aim of the festival is to bring Basque culture and cinema to the Big Apple. Joining the Bernardo Atxaga Chair programme, three films by four women filmmakers will be presented in this edition: ‘20,000 Species of Bees’ directed by Estibaliz Urresola (2022), ‘Lullaby’ by Alauda Ruiz de Azúa (2022) and ‘Arnasa betean: emakume zinegileak’ (A Deep Breath, Women Filmmakers) by Berta Gaztelumendi and Rosa Zufia.

Schedule

23 October

• Bernardo Atxaga Chair (CUNY - City University of New York). There will be a presentation of the Chair and an introduction to Basque film production. There will also be a Reading of an essay by Carlos Roldán: ‘Cineastas vascas" (‘Esa libertad pura y transparente. Temas clave en la ficción cinematográfica de las directoras vascas’) and an article by Pilar Rodríguez ‘From dispossession to reparation: Yoyes thirty years after her death’.

25 October

• Bernardo Atxaga Chair (CUNY - City University of New York): The seminar ´Transnational Movements´ will explore films crafted by female Basque directors, delving into the interplay between transnational geographical and symbolic settings. These films will thematically and aesthetically illuminate the tensions arising from the dynamics characterizing the modern world. There will also be a reading of the publication ´Basque Women Filmmakers´.
• NYC Basque Film Festival: screening of the film ‘20,000 Species of Bees’ (Estíbaliz Urresola) at the Village East by Angelika cinema.

26 October

• Bernardo Atxaga Chair (CUNY - City University of New York): this session will look at the recent work by filmmakers who explore the affections and everyday family situations of modern protagonists using the films ´Lullaby´ (Alauda Ruiz de Azúa, 2022) and ‘20,000 Species of Bees’ as a reference. (Estibaliz Urresola, 2023).
• NYC Basque Film Festival: screening of the film ‘Lullaby’ (Alauda Ruiz de Azua) at the Village East by Angelika cinema.

27 October

• Screening of the documentary film ‘Arnasa betean: emakume zinegileak’ (A Deep Breath, Women Filmmakers) by Berta Gaztelumendi and Rosa Zufia (2023) (NYC Basque Film Festival) and lecture on the film (Bernardo Atxaga Chair) at the Graduate Center of the New York City University.