+++++++++++++++ EUSKAL KULTURA ++++++++++++++++++++++++
Mixed Reviews by film critics Jill Cozzi and Gabriel Shanks. The Web Alliance for Film Commentary and their reviews are quoted at the popular Rotten Tomatoes portal site.
Souvenir Views is produced by Abe Shainberg and Written and Directed by Begonya Plaza
Without money or plans, and armed with only the goal of finding a "rite of passage" experience in order to evolve as an individual, Marc Larre Miranda ventured from his middle-class family in Barcelona, Spain and traveled to New York in September of 2001.
Sleeping on the street and living off his wits and his art, Miranda views his new surroundings through the prism of the Situationist movement of the 1950's. What better location could possibly exist for a young man seeking to find his own way, away from the expectations of his affluent businessman father than the New York City of late summer 2001? What better time to embark on a Situationist-inspired quest to begin to transform society by first reinventing yourself; to construct the situations of your life and release your own potential? "What matters when you visit a city are the experiences you've lived, not what cathedrals or cool buildings you've seen," he says. Little does he know that his observations about how the modern society has turned us into mere spectators of spectacle; how the media, rather than experience, provides our sense of adventure, are about to be tested by his presence in lower Manhattan on the morning of September 11, 2001. For in just a few terrible hours, the largest media spectacle of the new century unfolds in real time. For those who witness it, the spectacle IS the experience.
There are some very big themes touched on in Plaza's economical 22-minute film: the cultural contributions of New York's many itinerant musicians who form a sprawling Putumayo compilation on the streets and subway tunnels of New York; the concept of initiation into manhood via exposure to some dangerous ritual; the inevitable selling out most of us eventually have to do when living the bohemian life becomes too logistically difficult; the complicated relations between the idealistic young and their world-weary parents, the line between art that honors a tragedy and commerce that exploits it. Each of these provide enough material by itself for a documentary film. Like its subject's tiny cityscapes, this small piece of work is a hidden treasure that completes a story, while still leaving us wishing for more.
2.
Begonya Plaza presenta su version de "Vive Gernika" en New York -
La cineasta colombiana de origen vasco begonya Plaza presenta hoy por la tarde en la Eusko Etxea de Nueva York una nueva version de su pelicula Gernika Lives/Vive Gernika. Se trata de un documental sobre el bombardeo de Gernika por las tropas alemanas el 26 de abril de 1937 a traves de los recuerdos de su padre, Jesus Plaza, durante un intimo recorrido por la villa. El documental esta presentado por el actor John Randolph (El Honor de los Prizzi), y en el participan el ex alcalde de la villa, Juan Luis Zuzaeta , el antiguo jugador de futbol Mauri Ugartemendia o el bailarin Victor Olaeta, entre otros. En la version actualizada, el escritor vasco residente en Nueva York Mario de Salegi, comenta las imagenes mientras el mismo recuerda este dia que le toco vivir en Amorebieta.
"Como con el Holocausto judio, es bueno recordar que paso en Gernika el 26 de abril de 1937 para que algo asi no vuelva a ocurrir nuca mas" comenta begonya Plaza, quien se siente muy orgullosa de su origen vasco. Quiso realizar esta pelicula para que los estadounidenses pudieran conocer este tragico suceso y esta villa. Cada vez que begonya conoce a alguien surge una pregunta inevitable: Cual es el origen de tu nombre? Este documental, que esta dedicado a su padre, quiere dar respuesta a esa pregunta.
Comments