Xalbador gaztain kormutxa

84-year-old Maura is the guardian of a very particular tradition in danger of extinction. She is a singer of amorfinos, verses full of humor that will disappear forever with her departure.

In the Bella Coola Valley, a haunting legend endures through generations as a filmmaker reckons with whether the stories of her ancestors can survive being held or if they were never meant to be captured.

A documentary view of the Basque ball-game in which a small hard leather ball is hit against a wall. The film gives an impression of the game itself and of those who play it, not only the star performers (and the myths that surround them), but also those who just play in the streets and alleyways. The film sees the game it its cultural context and conveys the emotions and stories that are peculiar to the Basque country.

'Ama Lur' is a documentary, directed by Nestor Basterretxea and Fernando Larruquert, that premiered in San Sebastián in 1968, and it is considered the foundation of Basque cinema.

The documentary proposes a unique meeting with the speakers of several indigenous and inuit languages of Quebec – all threatened with extinction. The film starts with the discovery of these unsung tongues through listening to the daily life of those who still speak them today. Buttressed by an exploration and creation of archives, the film allows us to better understand the musicality of these languages and reveals the cultural and human importance of these venerable oral traditions by nourishing a collective reflection on the consequences of their disappearance.

Departing from peripheral details of some paintings of the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, a female narrator unravels several stories related to the economic, social and psychological conditions of past and current artists.

The personal stories lived by the Uncle, the Father and the Son, respectively, form a tragic experience that is drawn along a line in time. This line is comparable to a crease in the pages of the family album, but also to a crack in the walls of the paternal house. It resembles the open wound created when drilling into a mountain, but also a scar in the collective imaginary of a society, where the idea of salvation finds its tragic destiny in the political struggle. What is at the end of that line? Will old war songs be enough to circumvent that destiny?

The troubles of learning Basque in adults.

Study on the situation of Basque language compared to Spanish.

Donostia-San Sebastián, Basque Country, Spain, 2011. Maider, a filmmaker, moves to the very same flat where pedadogist Elbira Zipitria Irastorza (1906-1982) clandestinely established the first ikastola, a Basque school, under the harsh regime of dictator Francisco Franco. Despite of her pioneering work, developed throughout thirty years, her story is not well known, so Maider, intrigued, begins to research…

As a boy, Dawa was an illiterate Tibetan nomad whose life revolved around herding yaks. At 13, his life changed: through a series of visions, Dawa acquired the gift of telling the epic story of Tibet’s King Gesar. Now, at 35, Dawa receives a salary from the government as a guardian of national cultural heritage and is regarded as a holy man by his community. When an earthquake reduces his hometown to rubble, redevelopment of the region takes a giant leap forward. In the midst of such seismic shifts, Dawa seeks healing from King Gesar and other divine protectors of the land.

Documentary that presents the urban problems of Bilbao.

The 'bertsolari' is a kind of minstrel sings and improvises verses in Basque. This oral tradition has evolved with the times and connecting with younger generations, getting to meet at the end of the last championship to 14 thousand people. An austere aesthetic art of surprising in this age of spectacle and special effects.

Documentary on the rural world and the city in the Basque Country.

The six-decade transformation of a block of houses, shown by means of artfully featured archival shots, highlights the beauty and sadness of human-made decay. In the blink of an eye 66 years pass by and a savings bank replaces a church.

Day after day, an elderly woman recalls the Spanish Basque country of her youth — while forgetting she is consigned to a retirement home in Chile.

Documentary dedicated to the new Basque music.

The massacre occurred 500 years ago. In 1525, the Spanish Royal Council ordered the execution of five members of a cult recently discovered in the Pyrenees. This event marked the beginning of a relentless, century-long prosecution against Basque witchcraft, which exhibited all the hallmarks of the great European witch hunts, including an unstable border between powerful nations, revolts against the lords, raging misogyny, confessions obtained under torture, and mass accusations. These past five centuries, only one account has been heard: that of the inquisitors and jurists, the same ones who invented the myth of flying witches who met with the devil at sabbats to plot their crimes.

Debate on the launch of Basque television (ETB, Euskal Telebista).

Interview and tribute to Jose Migel Barandiaran, researcher on Basque culture.