Jean Haritschelhar Chair: Thomas Lacoste

The Basque Ethnopôle (2022-2023) lecture series promoted by EKE/ICB (Institut Culturel Basque) and the Basque Anthropological Research Institute ARI (UMR Passages) will offer a lecture entitled ‘Thomas Lacoste, unregard cinématographique sur le conflit basque’ (Thomas Lacoste, a filmmaker´s view of the Basque conflict) on 16 March at Cinéma L´Atalante in Bayonne in partnership with the Jean Haritschelhar Chair, promoted by Etxepare Euskal Institute and Université Bordeaux Montaigne.

The Jean Haritschelhar Chair at Université Bordeaux Montaigne is one of the university chairs promoted by the Etxepare Basque Institute around the world. Created in 2016, this programme promotes Basque studies, especially literature and linguistics, and Iberian studies.

Since 2016, Thomas Lacoste, a filmmaker, screenwriter, editor, and essayist, has focused his work on exploring the transformation of the conflict in the Basque Country, creating a four-film tetralogy on the subject: ‘La Paix Maintenant, une exigence populaire’ (Peace Now - a Popular Imperative, 2017), ‘Pays Basque et Liberté, un long chemin vers la paix (Basque Country & Freedom, a long road to peace, 2020) and ‘L´Hypothèse Démocratique – Une histoire basque’ (The Democratic Hypothesis - a Basque Story, 2022). He is currently working on a digital, audiovisual, international, multilingual platform aimed at preserving Basque heritage and memory. All previously unpublished interviews will be made available on the platform.

Participants in the event will include Thomas Lacoste (filmmaker), Terexa Lekumberri (head of Ethnopôle), Jon Casenave (professor at Université Bordeaux Montaigne), Nathalie Jaëck (Vice-President of Research at Université Bordeaux Montaigne).

The event will begin at 3:00 pm. with screenings of the films ´Peace Now - a Popular Imperative (2017) and ´Basque Country & Freedom´ (2020). Afterwards, the director will invite the audience to take part in a discussion.

At 6:00 pm, Thomas Lacoste will give a talk on the Basque Ethnopôle in which he will discuss the challenge of the Basque conflict and its political evolution. In this process of compiling and recording the history of the conflict, the filmmaker will explain the process in his tetralogy of filming the concealed, more obscure aspects of the conflict.

At 8:30 pm, the film ‘L´hypothèse démocratique – Une histoire basque’ (2022) will be shown at Cinéma L´Atalante.

The full programme (in Basque) is available here.