PRESENTATION

OFFICIAL SECTION/INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION >

Only one year after completing its first half-century of life, ZINEBI is preparing to celebrate its 49th edition with 2,648 films registered from 75 countries, 92 of which have been selected by the Selection Committee, from 38 countries, for the international competition. Of these 92, 20 are Spanish, including 9 from the Basque country.

If we take into account the genres of the 92 films selected for the competition, according to the three categories (fiction, documentary and animation) laid down in the Festival regulations, there are 52 fiction, 21 documentaries and 19 animations. As per their geographical distribution, besides the Basque and Spanish films, participation is again outstanding from countries such as United States (10 films), France (7), Germany (5) and the United Kingdom (4).

In the Latin American section, which, as with the Basque and Spanish sections, has a specific prize on the official list of prizes, this edition has an outstanding presence of films from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador (for the first time), Mexico, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. Such a varied participation of countries and geographical areas and cultures once again underlines the truly universal character of the competition.

Venue for the screening of the films : Arriaga Theatre

INFOSPAIN >

Panorama of the Spanish shorts in the fiction, documentary and animation sections not included in the official section. This year, the section includes 9 films.

Venue for the screening of the films: Arriaga Theatre

INFOEUSKADI >

Exhibition comprising 17 Basque productions in the areas of fiction, documentary and animation, not included in the official section.

Venue for the screening of the films: Arriaga Theatre

THE DANCE OF THE MUSES.
CINEMA AND THE PLASTIC ARTS >

As ZINEBI’s contribution to the commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, this season, designed by the film writer and lecturer Santos Zunzunegui, comprising 19 shorts and feature films grouped together in 9 programmes, seeks to show, from various thematic and formal perspectives, the progressive interweaving of the cinema in the space that is traditionally assigned to the plastic arts, with which it has held intense dialogues in recent years and from which it has borrowed (and to which it has also loaned) all kinds of creative resources. The season also includes the intervention of Omar Calabrese and Victor I. Stoichita, two international experts in the interpretation of artistic images.

In addition, as a special guest at the Festival in relation to the season, our city will receive a visit from the Mikeldi de Honor of this 49th edition: Pere Portabella, the great Catalan director and producer, thanks to his decisive role in the development of modern Spanish Cinema, a persevering and enthusiastic filmmaker, always against the dominant production trends and one of the greatest examples, throughout his entire work, of the dialogue between the cinema and the most avant-garde artistic practices. From Portabella’s work, this season shall screen the emotive short documentaries he dedicated to observing the details of Joan Miró’s work. The season’s programme will also include the premiere of Le ballon rouge, the latest film by Hou Hsiao-hsien, and it shall screen works by Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Marie Straub, Víctor Erice, Nobuhiro Suwa and Alain Cavalier, among others.

Venue for the screening of the films: Guggenheim Museum Auditorium

SIX AFRICAN VIEWS.
NEW DIRECTORS ON THE OLD CONTINENT >

This season, programmed for ZINEBI by Olivier Barlet, director of the magazine Africultures and one of the most reputable international experts in cinema and the culture of the African continent, intends to present the recent works of six young filmmakers with a growing international future. The six films portray different personal and artistic searches and very different ways of constructing images and the reality of the different countries from which the creators come.

The season presents the latest work by Ramadan Suleman (South Africa), Jean-Pierre Bekolo (Cameroon), Mahamat-Saleh Haroun (Chad), Nouri Bouzid (Tunisia), Newton Aduaka (Nigeria) and the Spanish premier of WWW what a wonderful world, by Faouzi Bensaïdi (Marruecos), member of the International

Jury of the 49th edition of the Festival.

Venue for the screening of the films: Fine Arts Museum Auditorium

EUROPEAN CHIAROSCUROS.
LANDSCAPES BEHIND THE WALLS OF THE CINEMA OF THE EAST >

After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the totalitarian experience in various countries, the cinema of Eastern Europe again shows its vitality in the work of six unique filmmakers whose films show the social, political and cultural consequences of the recent past and the often contradictory expectations of the immediate future in the said societies and each of their citizens.

This season, prepared by Domènec Font, Professor of Audiovisual Communication at Barcelona's Universitat Pompeu Fabra, will show the most recent work of the filmmakers Sharunas Bartas, Christu Puiu, Christian Nemescu, Alexandr Sokurov and Bela Tarr.

Venue for the screening of the films: Fine Arts Museum Auditorium

CINEMA AND DESIGN.
THE PLACE OF OBJECTS IN THE IMAGE OF MODERN CINEMA >

This season, co-ordinated by Constance Rubini, lecturer at l’École Superièure d’Art et Design of Saint Étienne and chief editor of the prestigious design and research magazine Azimuts, seeks to analyse the role of industrial and graphic design in the shaping, before the eyes of the Spectator, of the image of modern European and North American Cinema, through the three programmes that make up the season, placing special emphasis on the manufacture and the manufacturers of the objects that are included in many of today's films..

Accordingly, from this point of view, the season reviews classic works such as Mon oncle (Jacques Tati, 1956), together with Le chant du styréne, a short by Alain Resnais, three examples of the work by the North American filmmakers Charles and Ray Eames, recent works by the French filmmakers Myrha and Alyssa Verbizh and Pierre Leonforte and tributes to the graphic designers Max Miedinger and Robert Brownjohn.

Venue for the screening of the films: Guggenheim Museum Auditorium

THE FORTRESS AND THE PILGRIMS.
THE SPANISH DOCUMENTARY IN THE PRODUCTION OF NO-DO >

Between 1943 and the end of the 1970s, the NO-DO, the film newsreel of Franco's regime, produced a considerable number of short documentaries whose aim, with results that were often contradictory when not openly damaging for its interests, was to raise an image of the country in accordance with the dictatorship's principles and values.

This season, with four programmes prepared by Julio Pérez Perucha, critic and president of the Spanish Association of Film Historians and Writers, aims to examine such a peculiar production enterprise and inform today's public of the participation of unclassifiable regime intellectuals such as Ernesto Giménez Caballero and, above all, that of one of its most belligerent opponents, Eduardo Ducay, Jesús Fernández Santos, Basilio Martín Patino, Pío Caro Baroja, Francisco Rovira-Beleta and Chumy Chúmez, among others.

Venue for the screening of the films: Barrainkua Municipal Centre

COLOMBIA IN SHORT >

ZINEBI continues its journey through the film world of Latin America with the most recent works by the short filmmakers of the different countries. On this occasion, with the collaboration of the Cinema Department of the Ministry of Culture of Colombia and In vitro visual, the agency for the promotion and exhibition of the Colombian short, the 49th edition of the Festival focuses its attention on the younger producers of the country with three programmes, co-ordinated by the film critic and writer Hugo Chaparro Valderrama. Through a very varied handful of fictions, documentaries and animation films, the festival presents a plural view of modern-day Colombia and the dilemmas it faces as a jigsaw to be pieced together by the general public.

Venue for the screening of the films: Bilborock

HIROSHIMA ANIMATION >

A panoramic view of the recent years' winners of the International Animation Film Festival of Hiroshima (Japan). The generous and cordial collaboration with ZINEBI of this extraordinary film showcase, one of the most prestigious festivals of its kind in the world, allows us to present in Bilbao three programmes with a series of magnificent productions, including a few masterpieces, of the most recent animation cinema in the world.

Venue for the screening of the films: Fine Arts Museum Auditorium

EBA (EUSKAL BIDEOARTISTAK)

For the fourth year running, ZINEBI offers a selection, prepared by the experts Begoña Hernández and Itxaso Díaz on the latest productions in the field of video art and multidiscipline audiovisual experiences in the Basque Country. This edition will show the collective projects titled Closing Time, comprising two pieces whose purpose is to propose a suggestive reflection on time and territory with Iñigo Cabo and Iskandar Rementería; Burp! Underground report, conceived and made by the collective MY JOK World SL, invites young people from the Basque country in France to stage performances in their different towns and villages, whose result is an interactive documentary proposed as an ideal medium for the promotion of the underground culture in the said region.

For its part, Leda vuela is the title of another suggestive collective experience, co-ordinated by Itxaro Delgado, Beltrán de Heredia and Elena Mendizabal and made up of 10 short pieces, all made by women. The exhibition also includes the latest two works by the internationally recognized artist Txuspo Poyo and their screening shall be accompanied by live music composed for piano by Gordon Monahan.

Venue for the screening of the films: Fine Arts Museum Auditorium / Bilborock

CLIP-KLUB.
VIDEO MUSICAL EN EL MUNDO

For yet another year with the collaboration of EITB, ZINEBI devotes this season to the review of the production of music videos and concerts filmed of all modern-day styles of music in the Basque Country, Spain and abroad. We shall have the opportunity to see a selection of the most recent video clips, a monographic review of the work of the Basque filmmaker Aitzol Aramaio from his first music videos to his recent first feature film, a tribute to Pete Doherty through the films made of his concerts in the London Arena and, coinciding with his coming concert in Bilbao, an exhaustive journey through 40 years' filming of concerts by the great Bruce Springsteen.

Venue for the screening of the films: Sala Bilborock

ZINEBILAB >

For the seventh year running, ZINEBI 49 includes the seminar-workshop called ZINEBILAB, a two-day encounter for students, young filmmakers, professionals and experts in audiovisual production organised by the Festival with the collaboration of Media Antena Euskal Herria and the University of the Basque Country (UPV). This encounter seeks to present participants with new ideas and trends in the film creation process, analysing the ways in which audiovisual works are created and, on a more practical scale, together with this year's guest filmmakers and experts, considering specific aspects of the work involved in the said creation process.

This year, ZINEBILAB offers lessons in cinema with Pablo Malo, winner of the Goya Award 2005 for the Best Novel Director, the young producer Aitzol Aramaio and the writer Unai Elorriaga, who will speak of their work in the opera prima by the former, Mark Harris, North American producer of the Oscar winner Crash, by Paul Haggis, and the Mexican producer and filmmaker Carlos Reygadas, who will speak to the young director Pedro Aguilera about his collaboration on La influencia, one of the most outstanding films of the Quinzaine des réalisateurs of this year's Cannes Festival.

ZINEBILAB will also include the KIMUAK presentations, the programme of the Department of Culture of the Basque Government for the promotion and diffusion of shorts produced in Euskadi on its 10th anniversary, which will be carried out by Txema Muñoz, director of the programme; the thematic channel SHORT TV INTERNATIONAL, dedicated to shorts, presented by Carter Pilcher, its managing director; the new TV channel NCI (Noticias Culturales Iberoamericanas), which will be presented by Alberto García Ferrer, its general secretary, and the new distribution platforms in the world of short films by the international expert Juan Riva de Aldama, from the production company MPC. During the afternoon sessions, Aitzol Aramaio and Carlos Reygadas will offer two practical workshops in which they will show participants their experience and work procedures when putting together their films with images selected by themselves.

Venue for the screening of the films: Fine Arts Museum Auditorium / Barrainkua Municipal Centre

10th ANNIVERSARY OF KIMUAK >

The KIMUAK programme of the Department of Culture of the Basque Government, directed by Txema Muñoz, celebrates 10 years in its function of providing effective support for the promotion and diffusion of Basque short films all over the world. The many awards won by the shorts that have taken part in the programme at all kinds of international festivals demonstrate the successful work that has been carried out and to which the 49th edition of ZINEBI wishes to pay tribute with the screening of a selection of its best titles over the last 10 years. We will be able to see a set of very unique, famous works by directors such as Nacho Vigalondo and Borja Cobeaga, brilliant participants in the race for the Oscars, as well as Luis A. Berdejo, Jorge Dorado, Asier Altuna, Gabe Ibáñez, Koldo Serra, José Mª Goenaga and Koldo Almandoz.

Venue for the screening of the films: Arriaga Theatre

THE CINEMA AND MUSIC ACCORDING TO JOSÉ MARÍA VITIER

With the collaboration of the Sociedad General de Autores y Editores (SGAE, the General Association of Authors and Publishers) and the School of Music, Drama and Visual Art of Bilbao (ARTEBI), ZINEBI receives, for the first time in our city, José Mª Vitier, the great Cuban composer, author of soundtracks as unforgettable as Fresa y chocolate (Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, 1994), who shall give the Bilbao public a master class on his present ideas on the creation of music for the cinema screen.

place: ARTEBI

ZINESKOLA

Morning sessions at the Arriaga Theatre in which the children of Bilbao have the opportunity to see the most recent fiction and animation productions for children. The films also have arguments based on attracting the interest of students and teachers and, therefore, constitute interesting teaching resources from the point of view of education in values in the class room.

Venue for the screening of the films: Arriaga Theatre

SPECIAL SCREENINGS

There are four special screening sessions at ZINEBI 49: the first, as another part of the tribute to Père Portabella, the Mikeldi de Honor of this addition, shall be his feature film Pont de Varsovia, produced in 1989, the year when the Berlin Wall fell. It is a beautiful and disturbing allegory which shows the images of the new intellectuals and the amnesic political class of progressive Europe.

We shall also have the last two award-winning films by two young and brilliant filmmakers, members of this year's International Jury, two works that have been unanimously recognized by international critics after their filming at the Cannes Festival 2007: by the Philippine filmmaker Raya Martin, we shall see Autohystoria, a collection of memories in which the story of two brothers coincides in a city with a real event in Philippine history: the execution in 1987, for treason and sedition, of two brothers, one of whom was a founder of a revolutionary movement. By the Basque filmmaker Pedro Aguilera, we will be able to see La influencia, the desolate and truly beautiful, austere portrait of a fragile woman besieged by the problems of everyday life with her children who, with no options whatsoever, will try to go on without her.

The fourth special projection will be devoted to the premiere of the documentary titled Secretos de lucha, directed by the young Basque filmmaker Maiana Bidegain, a Basque-French coproduction in which the director submerges herself in her Uruguayan family past, showing us the fights between her parents and uncles against the military dictatorship of the country during the last 30 years of the last century.

Venue for the screening of the films: Guggenheim Museum Auditorium / Fine Arts Museum Auditorium

RESCUED FROM THE BASQUE FILM LIBRARY

This year, the Basque Film Library offers ZINEBI the recovery of a piece of great documentary interest: the 12-minute short titled Bilbao?, filmed in 1960 in super-8 format by Policarpo Fernández Azcoaga, who, at the time, was a young amateur producer who successfully filmed, with unquestionable drama, the reality of the slums on the sides of the mountains and in certain emblematic areas of the new, modern city of Bilbao, such as Campa de los Ingleses, which is now home to the Guggenheim Museum. An exercise in the historic memory of Bilbao.

Venue for the screening of the films: Arriaga Theatre

INTIMATE MARILYN EXHIBITION

In collaboration with the Bilbao 700 foundation, a complete collection owned by Maite Mínguez Ricart of the dresses, documents, photographs and all kinds of personal items that portray the professional and personal life of Marilyn Monroe, the great North American actress who, in the years since her premature death, has become much more than a great actress and is now the image of an entire era, the most photographed woman of her time, whose luminous image has unstoppably found its way into our lives and into our dreams.

place de exhibición: El Ensanche Municipal Centre

MIKROZINEBI

Installation in Plaza del Teatro Arriaga, the main centre of the Festival, of two industrial containers, one of which is to be used as a film hall for 25 spectators. It will screen a continuous selection from the official section of the competition and will be open for free entry to all passers-by.

Venue for the screening of the films: Plaza del Teatro Arriaga

OTHER VENUES FOR THE SCREENING OF FILMS

• Bidarte Municipal Centre: Selection of Basque, Spanish and Latin American films corresponding to programmes 1, 2 and 3.
• Getxo Culture Hall: Selection of Basque, Spanish and Latin American films corresponding to programmes 1, 2 and 3.
• University of the Basque Country Auditorium (UPV): Selection of Basque films from programmes 1 and 3.
• Orozko Ethnographical Museum: Selection of Basque, Spanish and Latin American films corresponding to programmes 1, 2 and 3.
• Guridi Theatre (Vitoria-Gasteiz): Selection of films from programme 1.