Basque Cinema

Cinema has always been a vital medium for articulating the Basque region's unique identity and politics. The first definitive study of Basque cinema, this book provides a systematic analysis of the key Basque films, directors and cinematic institutions. Its narrative moves from the romanticised Basque Country travelogues of Pathe to the coded oppositional aesthetics of Franco-era films; from the post-Franco 'new wave' supported by regional government funding to the boom in auteurist cinema during the 1980s and 1990s. It also charts the contemporary impact of the film institute Basque Filmoteca and television channel Euskal Telebista in producing and disseminating Basque-language films. Based on archival research, close readings of films and in-depth interviews with influential figures in the Basque film scene, this book is essential reading for world film scholars and cultural historians.

Rob Stone is Chair of European Film and Professor in the Department of Film and Creative Writing at the University of Birmingham, and Director of B-Film: The Birmingham Centre for Film Studies. He has published widely on Spanish, Basque, Cuban, European and independent American cinema. Maria Pilar Rodriguez is Professor in the Department of Communication at Deusto University, San Sebastian. She is the editor of Cultural Studies: Basque/European Perspectives (2009) and several monographs on modern and contemporary Spanish and European cinema and literature.

Acknowledgements
List of illustrations
Basque Cinema: Citizenship and Sentiment
2. Melodramatic Beginnings: Early Basque Cinema
Taking The Initiative: The San Sebastian Film Festival and the Transition
Past Tense, Present Tensions: History, Heritage and the First Basque Wave
Broken Windows: Representations of Terrorism
Elastic Basqueness: The Second Basque Wave
Boxed In and Breaking Out: Short Films and The Third Basque Wave
Longing and Belonging: Transnational and Diasporic Basque Cinema
Funding Films, Finding Audiences: Contemporary Basque Cinema
Inside Out and Outside In: Two Concluding Views of Basque Cinema
Bibliography
Index