CinemaAttic focus on shorts from Basque Country with their programme #KimuakEdinburgh: Best of the Basques. Thanks to CinemaAttic’s collaboration in recent years with both KIMUAK, Basque Filmoteque and Etxepare Basque Institute, they have gathered the new buds that have germinated since 2011 to present in Scotland every year.

Every spring, Basque leader distribution platform Kimuak (‘sprout’ in Basque) selects the best from Basque short film scene to create an annual collection with the most talented, original and qualified proposals produced within Basque Country. And rather than concentrating on Spain as a whole, whether that is possible or not at all, why not opening up a window to diversity by looking at peripheral cinemas?

At CinemaAttic we work towards the expansion of Spanish short film overseas as we strongly believe in the immense capacity of legion film directors whose works must be relocated in the outskirts of the film industry. It is indeed that isolation inherent to the short film format what we understand gives the format its very exclusive nature, its real value. That is why we work closely with platforms such as KIMUAK, establishing partnerships with which the invaluable effort these platforms undertake in supporting marginal works can be mirrored outside their generic domains. We can’t help but being excited with one of the most important initiatives promoting short films not just in Basque Country but in the whole of Spain. 

What is Kimuak? KIMUAK is a programme created by the Culture Department of the Basque Government, funded by Etxepare Institute and managed, at first, by Donostia Cultura’s Film Unit, and currently by the Basque Film Archive. Did you knew that the first two Spanish short films ever been nominated to Oscars came from KIMUAK selections?

The importance of an initiative like Kimuak  goes beyond the mere work of selecting the best Basque short films of the year. School for film directors. A way station towards feature films. A genre by itself, to which even successful directors return.

That take us to this year’s selection where we can find established directors returning to tell stories in short format, that is the case of Mikel Rueda, Jose Mari Goenaga and Jon Garaño or Kepa Sojo.

PROGRAMME

Beti bezperako koplak (Couplets for an Everlasting Love) (12A) Ageda KoplaTaldea, 5 mins 22
A denunciation of violence against women. Building on the couplets of bertsolaris (improvised verse-makers), twenty young Basque artists create a collective piece using different animation techniques.

Caminan (On the Path) (12A) Mikel Rueda, 14 mins 20
A road in the middle of nowhere. A car. A bicycle. Two solitary figures searching for the samething. Stars Maribel Verdú.

False Flag (15) Asier Urbieta, 10 mins 55
A jeep drives through a port zone by night and enters an apparently abandoned warehouse…

Gure hormek (Our Walls) (U) Las Chicas de Pasaik, 15 mins 13
A personal tribute to female family members and friends. Conceived as part of Hormek Diote (Speaking Walls), a San Sebastian-based project uniting street murals, dance and film.

Hileta (Funeral) (15) Kepa Sojo, 19mins 50
In a small Basque village in 1925 a wake is being held. Martín, the family patriarch, is concerned only by the absence of his son Joanes, who wanders the hills preaching about the resurrection of the dead.

Ihesa (The Escape) (12A) Alejandro Diaz Castaño, 15 mins 19
When Maitane tells her husband Iosu there is a leak from the apartment upstairs, he decides to take it up with the neighbours. But the visit will hold some surprises…

Renovable (Renewable) (12A) Jose Mari Goenaga & Jon Garaño, 13 mins 08
Years after their break-up, Tania and Josean meet again at a conference on renewable energy. She has a lot to tell him…

+ SPECIAL SURPRISE GUEST FILMMAKER KHRIS CEMBE

Travel By Feet Khris Cembe. 11 mins
We’re going on a trip! How exciting. Jumping into the train and enjoy landscapes and the feeling of getting away…Aye quite right until that baby start to cry, loudy telephone conversations break in and all by the sudden the trip becomes an everlasting agony. In this travel only human stupidity will be real.

Khris Cembe and Laura Aguado are key members of Bilbao-based studio UniKo. They will join us to present TRAVEL BY FEET Khris’ debut in film directing. He has worked in a number of well-known animation projects such as the Goya awarded ‘Birdboy’ (Alberto Vázquez & Pedro Rivero, 2010). He was animation director for the Goya Winning feature film ‘Psiconautas’ (Alberto Vázquez & Pedro Rivero, 2015) and critically acclaimed Decorado (Alberto Vázquez & Pedro Rivero 2015).
Khris & Laura will give a Masterclass in Producing and Developing projects in the field on Animation. “Animation in Three Acts” will take place at Edinburgh College of Art on Thursday 15 June at 11am More info following this link https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/khris-cembe-uniko-masterclass-animation-in-three-acts-tickets-34822812971

This event is supported by Etxepare Basque Institute