🚀 go-pugleaf

Jon Patrickek:
>This last weekend a Sydney newspaper carried an article about the SS Film
>Festival. It said how it was becoming very important in the film world and
>that more Australian film producers were using it to show their films. There
>was no mention of anything BAsque about it but lots of references to its
>"Spanish" elements.
>
>Can anyone tell me if is identified as basque in EH and Spain? Does the Basque
>governemnt or Diputacion give money to it? Do Basque people organise it? Just
>what is its status in the Basque community? etc.

The film festival is a Spanish event. Some dream about Donostia being
really Cannes, Venezia or Berlin, but that's fantasy.

The local authorities spend a lot in this event, of course. Is it Basque?
Well, lots of Basque people involved, though the main language is Spanish,
of course. The daily paper published during the festival days is
tri-lingual, spanish, basque, english. Besides that, the Donostiarrak
really enjoy the festival. The theathers are crowded for most films. You
can also see good movies, from time to time...

The problem is not about the festival being Basque or not. The fact is that
there is nothing like Basque-language cinema, and what some may call Basque
cinema is no more than Spanish cinema with some people involved born around
here.

For the other person that asked:
The Donostia festival is always in the second half of september.
Right after that, there is another film festival in the Basque Country, the
one in Biarritz (Lapurdi), dedicated to Latino-American cinema. Right now,
this year, the focus of this edition is Cuban cinema.

Luistxo