Barcelona, Catalonia. Five documentaries and two fiction films are part of the attractive program at this ZinemaldiaCAT 2021 festival that runs May 28-June 6th in Barcelona, organized by the local Euskal Etxea in collaboration with the Etxepare Basque Institute. Every year, and now reaching its 16th edition, ZinamaldiaCAT, showcases a selection of the best of recent Basque film production in the Catalan capital, a filmography that is not always easy to see on screens in Barcelona.
The documentaries to be shown include:
- 2 days, 4 months and 1 day (Lander Garro, 2020) a documentary that remembers and celebrates the insubordination, a movement of civil disobedience to military service
- June (Ione Atenea, 2019), an intimate portrait of middle age through the stories of two octogenarian women, testimonies of the meanders of history and “amonas” of the Navarrese filmmaker herself
- Children of God (Ekain Irigoien, 2020), presented at Zinemaldiea 2020 that brings to the big screen one of our society’s problems, homelessness
- Drugs (Natxo Leuza, 2020), a biographic documentary that explores, as if it were a river, all of the dimensions of the Txantrea (Pamplona) music figure, Enrique Villarreal
- Bury Us! A Punk Rock Uprising (Andrew Nethery, 2021), being directed by an American, its producer is Basque, and treats a Basque theme with the stars also being Basque. The documentary is a sonic journey around the personal stories of Usua and Koldo, the rock and roll duo, Niña Coyote eta Chico Tornado, portraying the rise of the band from playing concerts in small venues to mass festivals.
ZinemaldiaCAT will also include these two fiction films:
- Nora (Lara Izagirre, 2020) a female comedy shot in Basque, Spanish, English and French with a certain documentary tone, which also delves into the relationship of the characters with their environment.
- Hil kanpaiak (Imanol Rayo, 2020), a rural thriller that travels form the past to the present, portraying the vital anguish of some characters and in which slices weighs more than words
Discussions and Live Music
ZinemaldiaCAT has also scheduled discussions in three of the screenings, with the presence of its actors, and in one of the cases with a musical performance. The screening of the film 2 years, 4 months and 1 day, organized in collaboration with the Ateneu L’Harmonia, will end with a talk by director Lander Garro and an open mic accompanied by refreshments, to share experiences of the fight against compulsory military service.
In the same way, Children of God has organized in collaboration with the Casal del Pou de la Figuera, as part of the dynamic that they usually carry out. The film will be screened in a square and outdoors, and before the show, there will be a panel discussion on the topic of homelessness.
Finally, at the screening of Bury Us! A Punk Rock Uprising, besides the director and producer, also attending will be its protagonists Niña Coyote y Chico Tornado, and after a talk by the singer Sara Zozaya, there will be a performance by the same in at the Girona Cinemes.