FROM PLACES TO NON PLACES: PARAHI TE MARAE is an abstract video by Glasz DeCuir featuring a track from the album “Places in Motion” released earlier this year in 2017.
The video will be screened this year at the “Zinebi 59 International Festival of Documentary and Short Film of Bilbao”, on 12th November at 22:30 in Auditorium Azkuna Zentroa and again on 13th Monday at 18:00.
Parahi te marae. Non-Places #01 (From Places to Non Places) from Glasz DeCuir on Vimeo.
(Taken from Zinebi website)
INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY FILM AND SHORT FILM FESTIVAL IN BILBAO
The International Latin American and Philipino Documentary Film Competition of Bilbao (its original name) was created in 1959 under the auspices of the Basque Institute of Hispanic Culture, which in those years was under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The event was designed as a little brother, and in certain a sense as a complement to the International Film Festival of Donostia- San Sebastian, which had begun its career six years earlier. Its field of action quickly spread to many countries in the world and in 1968, in line with the rise of short fiction films which could be seen at that time in Spain, it made room for the latter type of cinema. Between 1972 and 1981 were the most intense years of the festival, which served the dual function of becoming a platform for discussion on Spanish short films and at the same time disseminating works belonging to the most diverse and varied cinematography, paying special attention to the cinema of Latin American origin. In 1974 the contest achieved full recognition from the International Federation of Film Producers Associations (FIAPF, its English abbreviation) as a festival of the highest international ranking, competitive in its three categories: fiction, documentary and animation.
Between 1975 and 1980 the Short Film Festival of Bilbao, in complete accord with the new cultural winds arising throughout Spain after Franco’s death and the end of his dictatorship, it made room for debate and became the ideal meeting point for the new birth of what in the Spanish transition to democracy came to be known by the name of Basque Cinema.
In 1981 the festival was officially taken over by the Bilbao City Council and in the year 2000 it began a new era which has served to enhance its reputation and position as one of the most important international festivals of its specialization (currently it receives well over 5,000 entries of films from some 90 countries for competition.) Within its own Basque territory the festival continues to serve as a platform for the new Basque and Spanish filmmakers and a s an outstanding international means for the promotion of a cinema that does not wear itself out in the stereotyped repetition of stylistic featu res, but it commits itself to formal experimentation, the hybrid and inter disciplinary status of new cultural productions and ethical and aesthetic investigations of filmmakers of the whole world .
A quick review of the names of award-winners at the international cinema competition in Bilbao includes significant filmmakers such as Jacques Demy, Richard Lester, Pierre Perrault, Michel Brault, Claude Lelouch, Gian Vittorio Baldi, Fernando Birri, James Blue, Santiago Alvárez, Robert L. Drew, Felipe Cazals, Peter Watkins, Peter Mullan. Avi Mograbi and Làzslo Nemes. It can therefore be said that the Bilbao Festival has far exceeded the main purpose that could be assigned to a cultural event of its characteristics, namely to serve as a testing ground for new trends and forms of understanding cinema, and hosting the works of some of its more risk-taking filmmakers, to whom it offers each year the opportunity to display their works in a framework of criticism, debate and specialization.
A similar review carried out among the ranks of the Spanish cinema, allows us to take note that from the Bilbao Festival some important filmmakers have emerged. They are artists belonging to at least three different generations: Carlos Saura, Ramón Massats, Basilio M. Patino, Pío Caro Baroja, José Val del Omar, Javier Aguirre, Gabriel Blanco, Jaime Chávarri, Francisco Betriu, Imanol Uribe, Montxo Armendáriz, Julio Medem, Juanma Bajo Ulloa, Javier Rebollo, Santiago Segura, Jon Garaño, José María Goenaga, Isabel Herguera o Asier Altuna. For many of the most creative in our cinema, the starting point begun in Bilbao has proved to be extremely successful, because it has helped to give their films the needed sounding board that brought them to the attention of critics and audiences.
Among the personalities of world cinema who have accepted the invitation to the Bilbao festival, and have participated as members of the International Jury or have visited Bilbao to receive at each festival its highest distinction: the Mikeldi de Honor award, are Roman Polanski, Peter Greenaway, Ennio Morricone, Jean Rouch, Dino Risi, Luis García Berlanga, Juan Luis Buñuel, Richard Kaplan, Hanna Schygulla, Anna Karina, Jane Birkin, Arturo Ripstein, Elías Querejeta, Père Portabella, Richard Lester, Nicolas Roeg, Jim Sheridan, Pavel Paulikowski, Jeanne Moreau, Vannessa Redgrave, Emir Kusturica, Liliana Cavani, Carlos Saura, Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón, Jean-Claude Carriére, Patrice Chéreau, Cecilia Roth, Hirokazu Kore-Eda, Juan Ruiz Anchía y Aki Kaurismäki.
In addition, besides its habitual work in the field of disseminating film internationally, on a local level, ZINEBI aspires to being a true vehicle for local administrative action in the audiovisual sector. In this regard, the audiovisual cultural industry is unbeatable as a fundamental factor for economic activity on the suggestive transition that Bilbao has been making over recent years from its earlier industrial age to its current determination to become a city with advanced services. On this path, audiovisual production is destined to become the basis of any strategy for promoting the international image of the city and for growing its economy.
Nowadays the Bilbao Festival relies on the institutional patronage and funding of the Bilbao City Council, trought the Arriaga Theatre, which is its organizing body, the Department of Culture of the Basque Government, the Ministry of Culture through the Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts (Spanish abbreviation is ICAA), the Provincial Council of Bizkaia and the savings bank Bilbao Bizkaia Kutxa (Basque abbreviation is BBK).
In addition, public and private entities that contribute to ZINEBI are the Guggenheim Museum, the Azkuna Center, the Golem-Alhóndiga Venue, the Arteria-Campos Elíseos Theatre, the University of the Basque Country, the Basque Public Television Corporation (Basque abbreviation is ETB), the Society of Authors and Publishers (Spanish abbreviation is SGAE ) and the Fundación Autor.
