means: see you soon. This short film was shot in 2013 in the Basque towns of Bakio, San Sebastian, and San Juan de Gasteluatxe in the province of Bizkaia, Northern Spain. Two years prior to Game of Thrones.
Half-siblings meet for the first time when the American sister visits her Basque half-brother to make amends for the sins of their father.
I wrote this story inspired and reimagined from a childhood memory of a Basque friend's personal story. Also, wanting to work with my good friend, Patxi Barco, whom I know since 1986 when I was in Gernika making Gernika Lives and editing at K200 production house where we met.
Starring:
Ainhoa Aierbe, Patxi Barco & Begonya Plaza
Spanish, English and Euskera with subtitles in English. Duration: 15 minute. Shot on 5DMark II. Aspect ratio: 1920 X1080 (HDV) - Private screener on Youtube. Available as a Quicktime.mov file and on DVD region "o". Released in 2014.
Kontxi Orbegozo was so incredibly splendid and gracious allowing us to use her bar.
Kontxi is not only my extraordinary friend but her dishes are exquisite and I recommend you visit her bar if you have a chance to travel to San Sebastian or Donosti (the name in Euskera).
Alai Taberna at Catalina de Erauso Kalea, 9, 20010 Donostia, Gipuzkoa, Spain Phone: +34-943-46 62 81
Camara: Antonio Galvez, Assistant Camera: Alain Consonni, Sound: Jon Fika, Editing: Taji Ameen & Begonya Plaza, Music: accordion composer: Kepa Junkera, Produced by: Izar Productions, & CreAv
All rights reserved, May 12, 2014
Eskerrik asko, dear friends of Bakio. Koldo and Rosa you were amazing in how you offered up your bar and services at the wonderful Itsasargi Kafetxea at: Zarrakoa Bidea, 7, 48130 Bakio, Bizkaia, Spain. Tel: +34 946 19 31 93
Thank you! all who served as background patrons encouraging a smooth shoot, and patiently enduring the repetitive takes with joy and good will. The night turned out to be a big town event. How delighful, and I am so grateful to you all.
My dear and long time friend Miguelín made all this possible, with permits, contacts and his own enthusiastic involvement. So true that time and distance means nothing when there is a strong bond of friendship. After the shoot, Miguel invited us to his amazing caserio-home and prepared for us a meal composed of the percebes he caught, out in the rocky seas of the Atlantic ocean, eggs, tomatoes and chicken from his farm, and delicious local chorizos and sardines. It was a banquet. Eskerrik asko Miguelín. You deserve your own documentary, and here is Miguelín talking about his lemon trees. (Click outside the white frame to enter my blog and see this video and more posts.)
Forever we will remember this experience and treasure not only its creative challenges but the beautiful people I made friends with along the way. Gero arte!
Begonya is interviewed by Felix and Kike on Basque Radio IFLANDIA
IFLANDIA entrevista a Begonya Plaza
At half show: 51:50 for the second half of the program Begonya comes on.
IFlandia Radio Euskadi Es un programa divertido, interesante sobre cultura y arte. Para todos los de habla hispana les recomiendo descargar sus podcasts. 10/16/2013
"Do the Blind Dream?" by Barry Gifford
A private reading by the theater group BLACK LODGE THEATER, directed by Alexandra Siladi
The play takes place in Fùlmine, a small town close to the sea in the south of Italy. Beatrice, a woman in her seventies, has just died, and her children are gathering to attend her funeral. Aldo, Beatrice's son, and Sandra, her eldest daughter, arrive at the house of "Aunt" Rosa, their mother's caregiver in her last years——Beatrice suffered from Alzheimer's disease——with their respective spouses, Giuliana and Ignazio. Cara, Beatrice's younger daughter, a famous actress, arrives with her American boyfriend, Buddy. The family, along with Aunt Rosa and two men from the funeral home, and later, a Priest, constitute the main cast.
"Do the Blind Dream?" is a title built on double entendre: Does anyone, sighted or not, see the truth of daily events? To paraphrase the poet Delmore Schwartz, in dreams reside responsibilities.
As the action proceeds we become acquainted with the jealousies, rivalries and secrets concerning the immediate family and the (mostly——as well as ghostly) absent father and husband. As everyone talks we begin to discern how and why they lie——not only to each other but to themselves. The only person among them who retains a true sense of her self, as well as a measure of elegance, is Beatrice, the dead woman, who in life did not speak a coherent sentence in her final years. Here, however, she is free to talk, liberated in death as she was imprisoned in life by convention, a bad marriage and, finally, illness.
Also at issue here is the recurrent clash between generations, the traditional and the new; between a burned out culture struggling to be reborn and an often vulgar contemporary one. Cara, despite the serious differences between her and Beatrice, emerges as the one among the children to best represent the values and spirit of their mother. As the family members wrangle, recriminate and stumble toward rapprochement, Buddy, the "visitor from another planet" as one character describes him, is able to pick up and follow the thread of truth as it unravels. And, of course, it is left for Beatrice to have the last word. October 15, 2013
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A LUCID DREAM:
First Private Reading - Friday, September 23rd, 2011 @ 8PM & Saturday 24th at 2PM - La Nacional: 239 West 14th Street (btwn 7th & 8th avenues)
Jackie Shark is the Host, the Joker, and God, as she chats in this interview setting with Hispanic historical characters: Eva Perón, Simón Bolivar, Dolores Ibarruri, and Antonio Machín. As these guests flaunt their heroism, humbling secrets are also unveiled that lead them back to a path of true realization.
Antonio Machín, 1903 - 1977 - One of the most recorded Cuban singers of the 20th century who in 1930 became a hit wonder in New York with the song, El manisero (The Peanut Vendor), becoming the first Cuban song to sell over a million copies around the world, presaging the rumba explosion of the 1930s. Died in Sevilla, Spain where he lived most of his life.
PLAYED BY: Rick Reid
Maria Eva (Ibarguren) Perón “Evita” (1919-1952) Argentinian leader and 2nd wife of Juan Perón. In her time Evita was the most powerful woman in the world.
PLAYED BY: Elizabeth Inghram
Simón Bolivar (1783 – 1830)
Liberator of the Americas, leading the independence movement for 6 nations in northern South America. The George Washington of Spanish America.
Dolores Ibarruri “Pasionaria” (1895 – 1989)
A Basque woman of indomitable spirit and a great Spaniard who founded the Spanish Communist party, and won international renown during the Spanish Civil War for her courage defending Republican Spain against Franco.
PLAYED BY: Dana Jacks
HOST / JACKIE SHARK / JOKER & GOD
PLAYED BY: Diana Oh
DIRECTED BY: Alberto Bonilla