Zinemaldia 70: all possible stories

How many stories do seven decades in the life of an international film festival have to tell? How can we re-encounter the memory and the material traces of the myriad cinematic, political, social and personal aspects that have shaped the San Sebastian Festival since its foundation in 1953?

The San Sebastian Festival has created, together with the Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola (EQZE) research department, the project Zinemaldi 70: all possible stories (Z70) with a view to generating a living Festival archive. The first stage of the project will culminate in 2022, coinciding with the Festival's 70th anniversary. The initiative has the collaboration of Tabakalera-International Centre for Contemporary Culture and the sponsorship of Loterías y Apuestas del Estado.

The Z70 project will highlight the importance of the Festival's document collections (letters, photographs, reviews and articles in newspapers and magazines, books, etc.), stored in its archive since 1953. The core objective of the project is to prompt reflection and discussion on the past, present and future of the Festival, as well as dialogues critical with cinematic creation and contemporary thought.

The project involves transferring all of the Festival's archive material to the Tabakalera building, where it will be examined, prepared and catalogued to guarantee its conservation in the Filmoteca Vasca facilities. In 2022, the archive will be available for public consultation either physically or online, through a selection of digitized contents. Consultation of the collection will include themed spotlights based on the research developed by a team of post-graduate students at the Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola directed by the researcher Pablo La Parra Pérez in collaboration with the different Festival Departments.

The research spotlights will stress little known or unknown aspects of the Festival's history. To reveal its results until 2022, two lines of work will proceed simultaneously and in connection with one another. On the one hand, specialised research material (academic articles, presentations at congresses, own editorial projects, seminars, etc.) will be generated in the endeavour to create a critical dialogue with the latest developments in the academic field of film studies. On the other hand, a number of public programmes will be organised (conferences, exhibitions, courses), aimed at wider publics.

This website section will make it possible to follow all updated advances in the evolution of the project, including the publication of original content and digitized archive materials.

Team:

Principal researcher: Pablo La Parra Pérez

Team of EQZE students, 2018-2019:
Antonio Miguel Arenas, Sara Hernández, Julieta Juncadella, Felipe Montoya, Clara Rus, Neus Sabaté

Team of EQZE students, 2019-2020:
Olatz Arrieta Aguileta, Irati Crespo Manjarrés, Noemí Cuetos, Silvia de Olveira Cruz, Sofía García Broca, Diego Ginartes Rodríguez, Marcela Hinojosa.