GERNIKA LIVES
In my early twenties I put aside my acting career and embarked on a passionately personal documentary adventure. I wanted to capture the voices and essence of Gernika's survivors who experienced horrific violence and destruction. Their memories echo throughout history as a cry for peace.
April 26, 1987 was the 50th Anniversary of the Bombing of Guernica.
The silenced survivors who during the Franco years could not speak, finally got to narrate their personal traumas of that horrific day in my documentary, Gernika Lives.
Imagine that this was one of the first aerial bombings on innocent populations, after Harar in Ethiopia, Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia. Because Gernika is the emblem of Euskalerria (the Basque people in the Northern part of Spain, and Southern part of France,) the Fascists targeted the area to level it as a war of aggression waged by Franco and Hitler.
When I was a little girl I remember sitting on my daddy’s lap and hearing his stories, while seeing tears roll down his cheeks. I wasn’t a filmmaker, but I somehow needed to make this amateur film for my father, and for all my Basque ancestors, and the people of Euskalerria. Some say that the Basques are the indigenous people of Europe. They speak their own unique language, and have maintained their identity and a democratic independence from the beginning of time while in a complicated dynamic with neighboring governments. During Franco’s regime, they were prohibited from speaking their language, or blaming the victimizing assailants.
In 1988 when I returned to the States and wanted to distribute the film, nobody was familiar with this story or the least interested. Soon after I was cast in Born on the Fourth of July on location in the Philippines, and my film was put on the shelf. But that learning experience is forever informative.
CLICK ON VIDEO BELOW TO VIEW: it works.
Prior to Gernika's bombing, when my aita (father in Basque) was a child of three years of age, his family lived in a comfortable chalet in Barakaldo. My grandfather was the head of the worker's union of the shipyard, Los Astilleros.The Fascist Nationalists appropriated themselves of my grandparent's home, and sent them off to vanish in homeless conditions. First they fled on cargo trains to France, and then continued to Barcelona, until finally returning to the shattered remains of Guernica where my barefoot father helped clean up the rubble of the ravaged town.
Written, directed, narrated, produced, and co-edited by Begonya Plaza
A co-production with K2000 in Bizkaia
Edited with Jack Tucker (Emmy winning editor)
Music by Xeberri and other distinguished Basque musicians (included in the film credits).
Film introduced by John Randolph (actor / activist, victim of McCarthyism)
Featuring: Basque artist/author Luis Iriondo, and historian, author Mario de Salegi
Dedicated to my father: Jesus Plaza
In Spanish, and Euskera with English Voice-Over & subtitles. 39".
GUERNICA by Pablo Picasso
Written, directed, narrated, produced, and co-edited by Begonya Plaza
A co-production with K2000 in Bizkaia
Edited with Jack Tucker (Emmy winning editor)
Music by Xeberri and other distinguished Basque musicians (included in the film credits).
Film introduced by John Randolph (actor / activist, victim of McCarthyism)
Featuring: Basque artist/author Luis Iriondo, and historian, author Mario de Salegi
Dedicated to my father: Jesus Plaza
In Spanish, and Euskera with English Voice-Over & subtitles. 39"
Reviews
Dear BegonyaThank you so much for the films which had arrived when I got back yesterday evening and watched. I loved them- such a personal journey for you. I especially liked Guernika Lives with its original footage and wonderful music to accompany it- very inspiring. I was even more horrified by the event and so touched by the courage and strength of the Basques- and the people who were interviewed. It must have been very emotional for your father. I so applaud their strength in holding on to their cultural and unique identity.On Saturday I will be sitting in the restaurant you recommended, thinking of the events, and will raise a glass to you and yours.Thank you again,Lesley - MiriamEngland, february, 2013
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A short semi-fictional story.
In "The Real Gernika" Begonya is visiting with her husband, and new born, her family in Gernika, and while at the cemetary visiting her grandfather's grave, meets an American approaching the same tomb to pay his respects. John was in Spain during the Spanish Civil War, fighting on the side of the Republicans, against Fascism and Franco, as part of the American Lincoln Brigades volunteers. John and his comrade, Satur, fought side by side when they were young, strong and ideological during the lates thirties, early forties. These comrades remained friends to the end.
Begonya, and John hit it off, and the two are intrigued with the other.While they walk the town, visiting all the symbolic places, they talk about her grandfather. Begonya invites John to lunch to her family's farm house, a two hundred year-old caserio. Together they take the train to another town secluded in an area up in the Pyrenees mountains. Over lunch the family sits around the table with John and together exchange an animated conversation with topics ranging from the personal to the local to the universal and reflecting a little of who each one represents at this time in history.
Written, directed and performed by Begonya Plaza
Director of Photography: Aitor Mantxola
Starring: John Randolph, Kontxi Orbegozo, The Orbegozo Family, Xano Armenter, Caterina Armenter and Begonya Plaza
With archival footage of the Spanish Civil War bombings, courtesy of Basque Government.