ZINEBI – International Festival of Documentary and Short Film of Bilbao, organised by Bilbao Town Hall, is joining in the celebration of the 80th anniversary of the birth of Basque filmmaker Iván Zulueta, director and scriptwriter on films such as Un, dos, tres, al escondite inglés (1969) or the cult film Arrebato (1980) – starring Eusebio Poncela, Cecilia Roth and Will More – and a leading designer of posters for films in the last third of the 20th century.

This is why ZINEBI will be screening all the material retrieved and 4K-digitalised by Filmoteca Española from Iván Zulueta’s own archives, which had still not been released until just under a year ago. With the title “A/Z Zulueta inédito”, this is a total of almost eight hours of material which was thought to be lost, or the existence of which there were practically no records. Their timeframe covers five decades: from the 1930s – when the films were being shot by Iván’s parents – up to the late 1980s.

In view of the quantity of material to be viewed, ZINEBI has decided to include only the last of the screenings of this 5-session cycle curated by Josetxo Cerdán Los Arcos and Miguel Fernández Labayen during the 65th Festival (specifically, Wednesday 15 November), and the other four will be screened before ZINEBI officially begins at the Golem Alhóndiga Cinemas, tomorrow 2 November and Friday 3 November.

• Thursday 2 November – 17:30 (Golem 7)
Session 1: Las películas de Consuelo y Antonio + Aloha (131 min.)

This first session features the first two programmes in the “A/Z Zulueta inédito” cycle. It starts off with the films made by Consuelo Vergarajauregui Ubarrechena and Antonio de Zulueta y Besson, Iván Zulueta’s parents (including their honeymoon, boat trips in the Cantabrian Sea, footage from the San Sebastián Film Festival with Kirk Douglas and family footage), and finally one of Iván’s first short films.
It then shows footage centring on Villa Aloha, the Zulueta family’s mansion and an essential feature of the filmmaker’s universe, located on Paseo Duque de Baena, with spectacular views of San Sebastián’s bay.

• Thursday 2 November – 20:00 (Golem 7)
Session 2: La celebración de la carne (70 min.)

If Zulueta’s queer sensitivities have occasionally been highlighted, this programme contains a number of encounters with sexuality with its many and varied manifestations.

• Friday 3 November – 17:30 (Golem 7)
Session 3: Fugas y escapadas + Viaje al final de la noche (128 min.)

A session divided into two very different parts: the first hour dwells on Iván Zulueta’s physical and mental journeys from Paris to Morocco, and stopping over in California too: the second retrieves footage of fiestas with girl friends and acquaintances, wild encounters. Pleasure as an artistic and political expression alongside Cecilia Roth, Luis Cobos, Vicente Ameztoy, Juan Cruz Unzurrunzaga, Antonio Gasset and Javier Gurruchaga, among many others.

• Friday 3 November – 20:00 (Golem 7)
Session 4: About Arrebato (55 min.)

Arrebato is one of Spanish cinema’s most celebrated films. In this session Zulueta portrays ideas and feelings developed when he was preparing the best remembered of his films.

• Wednesday 15 November – 19:00 (Golem 3)
Session 5: Apuntes y bocetos (89 min.)

The last session in the cycle ponders on how far Iván Zulueta’s work could have gone. This session contains a number of intuitive suggestions as to the direction his career could have taken.

This session will be held as part of the 65th ZINEBI Festival, immediately after “Trabajar con (y desde) el archivo [Working with (and from) the archives] at the Azkuna Zentroa’s Sala Bastida, with the director of Filmoteca Española Valeria Camporesi; co-curator of the “A/Z Zulueta inédito” cycle Miguel Fernández Labayen; the chief researcher on the joint research project with Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola (EQZE) in the ZINEBI deposit at Filmoteca Vasca, Santiago Aguilar; Pablo La Parra Pérez, advisor to the San Sebastián Film Festival archive project; and Pablo Maravi and Libe Belandia, representing the research project VideoFlux (UPV/EHU – University of the Basque Country), focusing on Basque videoart audiovisual archives.

PLENA PAUSA

ZINEBI will be celebrating Zulueta’s work – by way of an epilogue to its 65th Festival – with a performance by J from “Los Planetas” at the Arriaga Theatre on 18 November, presenting the Basque Country premiere of “Plena Pausa”, the musicalisation project for part of the Gipuzkoa director’s film archives, premiered at Madrid’s Cine Doré, for which J will be accompanied by guitarist and vocalist Natalia Drago, with Miguel Martín on keyboards, Roberto Escudero on drums, and guitarists David Rodríguez and Jaime Stinus. “Plena Pausa” came out in vinyl and on DVD in September, but for the live performance J has reserved some songs composed to be – for the moment – performed exclusively live. Tickets are now on sale on the Arriaga Theatre website (https://arriaga.janto.es/es).