The International Festival of Documentary and Short Film of Bilbao – ZINEBI, organised by Bilbao Town Hall, is making ready for its 64th festival from 11 to 18 November. This year it has a new feature, a special session for the deaf, The Reflected Gesture. Seeing, Hearing and Perceiving Cinema, with short films from six different countries, taking a brief look at the presence of various sign languages in the world..
The event will be on 12 November at 12:00 h in the Golem Alhóndiga cinemas, with screenings of different categories of short films such as documentaries, fiction, animation, video clips and experimental cinema, from the United Kingdom, Brazil, Germany, the Netherlands, the United States and Ukraine.
With this special session, in association with the Basque Federation of Deaf People’s Associations Euskal Gorrak, ZINEBI wishes to embark on a sensory inclusive film experience with a mixed audience in equality in the darkness of a cinema.
AN INCLUSIVE EXPERIENCE
According to Vizcaya director Aitor Gametxo, who programmed the session, the cycle sets out to “provide a sensory experience relating to the nature of language and the creation of images”, with a reflection on the possibilities of various sign languages around the world. The idea is “to showcase the decisions of each author in relation to key concepts of films such as duration, frames, staging, distance, movement etc.”
After studying documentary cinema, Gametxo — who competed in the Official Sections of ZINEBI 2014, 2017 and 2020— also studied the Interpretation of Sign Language, and this gave him the idea of making the short film “Una sinfonía en silencio”, which was shot in Poland with the deaf community in the city of Breslavia.
Between 11 and 18 November the 64th ZINEBI Festival will present 148 films from 47 countries, more than half of which are directed by women, and more than half of them are also State premieres.
The Festival press materials may be consulted at this link.
