Documentaries and an international conference to close Scotland Goes Basque

Throughout 2019, the #ScotlandGoesBasque programme has put a spotlight on Basque culture at some of the most important events in Scottish cultural life: music at the Celtic Connections festival; film at CinemaAttic and the Edinburgh International Film Festival; performing arts at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe; and literature at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. In autumn, #ScotlandGoesBasque will focus on documentary films, with Europa Transit, and in the academia realm, with an international conference on minority languages and media.

Throughout 2019, the #ScotlandGoesBasque programme has put a spotlight on Basque culture at some of the most important events in Scottish cultural life: music at the Celtic Connections festival; film at CinemaAttic and the Edinburgh International Film Festival; performing arts at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe; and literature at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. In autumn, #ScotlandGoesBasque will focus on documentary films, with Europa Transit, and in the academia realm, with an international conference on minority languages and media.

Europa Transit in Edinburgh and Glasgow

Three documentaries from the Europa Transit series will be screened in Scotland from October 11 to 20: Kaleko Dantzariak (Street Dancers), Mugaminak (Common Borders) and Erresilientzia Soinuak (Sounds of Resilience). Europa Transit, the ‘travelling embassy’ of the Donostia/San Sebastián European Capital of Culture 2016, toured ten European cities (Ceuta, Belfast, Dresden, Wroclaw, Sarajevo, Moscow, Paphos, Plovdiv, Pristina and Thessaloniki) to promote a culture of transition towards coexistence. To give audiences a taste of this initiative, three of the ten documentaries directed by the filmmaker Xuban Intxausti will be presented in Edinburgh and Glasgow

Kaleko Dantzariak (Street Dancers)

The film Kaleko Dantzariak (Street Dancers), which will be shown on October 12 at the Scottish Documentary Institute in Edinburgh, is the result of an artist-in-residence programme carried out in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, by Sra Polaroiska. Sra Polaroiska is an artistic collective made up of Alaitz Arenaza and María Ibarrertxe, who during their residency put together a performance with a group of young Roma artists. Sra Polaroiska will present Kaleko Dantzariak, and as an extra initiative the collective will perform Lur Away at Lauriston Hall in Edinburgh the previous day.

Mugaminak (Common Borders)

On October 17, journalist and bertsolari Amets Arzallus will present the documentary Mugaminak (Common Borders) in Edinburgh at St Cecilia´s Hall. The documentary is about the consequences of the conflict in Cyprus between the Greek- and Turkish-Cypriots and compares them with the director’s own experiences. In addition, Arzallus, winner of the 2013 Bertsolari Championship, will give a talk on bertsolaritza, the art of singing improvisational rhyming verse.

Erresilientzia Soinuak (Sounds of Resilience)

The series will close on October 20 at the Contemporary Art Centre in Glasgow with the documentary Erresilientzia Soinuak (Sounds of Resilience). Starring Maite Arroitajauregi, aka Mursego, and Vedran Smailovic, the ‘Cellist of Sarajevo’, the film focuses on the post-war period and current situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina and talks about the value of music for promoting resilience. Mursego will then give concert at the same venue.

Conference on challenges and opportunities in global communication at the University of Edinburgh

Linguistic diversity, the sociolinguistic status of minority languages and the role of the media are some of the factors shared by the Basque Country and Scotland.

With these ideas as a springboard, the Etxepare Basque Institute and the University of Edinburgh have organized an international congress on October 16-17 at the University of Edinburgh. With the participation of more than 30 experts, the conference aims to foster academic and professional discussion about media in minority languages and to encourage collaboration between university researchers and media professionals who use these languages as a tool.

Topics will include policies on communication and culture; media economics and the digital environment; new online television and video platforms; content programming and contracting strategies; production conditions and distribution options; content marketing; media, education and language use; territoriality, language and identity; and media and gender perspective. The languages represented at the conference include Akan, Bosnian, Scottish Gaelic, Scottish, Basque, Frisian, Irish, Yoruba, Cornish, Croatian, Welsh, Dutch, Sardinian, Serbian and Zulu.