On 10 September 1977, an unusual event took place that would mark a historic breakthrough and a change in the communication paradigm at the San Sebastian Film Festival. In that 25th edition, for the first time in the history of the event, the first words in Basque could be read in its official magazine. The editorial of the first issue read: ‘Zine-Erakusketak XXIV argitaldi eduki ditu. Ez zaigu atsegin. [The Festival has had XXIV editions. We don’t like it].
The statement also contained an immense symbolic and political charge: to account for the 24 previous editions directed by Francoist institutions. That edition was thus presented as a break with the past and a promise for the future, in a year in which the Festival was to undergo all kinds of renovations: a Steering Committee that incorporated representatives from artists’ associations, film clubs and Neighbourhood Associations into its traditional seats; the return of exiled filmmakers such as Luis Buñuel (who was also awarded an honorary Golden Shell); the creation of a democratising section such as Barrios y Pueblos; the programming of the cycle «Cine español de la II República» [Spanish Cinema of the 2nd Republic] or the round table on «Cine y testimonio histórico» [Cinema and historical testimony]; the visit of filmmakers such as Antxon Eceiza, Joris Ivens, Luis Correa or Jaime Chavarri or the appearance of Basque in the official written supports of the event, a language that until a few years ago had suffered a decades-long process of persecution and prohibition through a dozen laws that progressively reduced its presence in all areas of life: from its public, educational or cultural use (with a specific law of the General Directorate of Cinematography), to the compulsory removal of signs in hotels or inscriptions on tombs and mausoleums.
The presence of the language in the Festival’s newspaper, which was added to an abundance of decision-making by an organisation focused on recovering the freedom stolen by forty years of dictatorship, would undergo significant quantitative and qualitative evolutions in its use in the following editions, which can be traced through the issues of its publication: from simple translations and bilingual sections to the writing of original texts and reviews in Basque.
Regulations of the II Cartago International Film Festival (1968) San Sebastian Festival Archive. [+]
Letter from Josefina Molina to the Festival organisers (1978) San Sebastian Festival Archive [+]
Letter from Diego Galán to film director Jafar Panahi (1998) San Sebastian Festival Archive. [+]
Program for the 11th edition of the Festival International de Films de Femmes de Créteil et du Val de Marne (1989) San Sebastian Festival Archive. [+]
Letter from Wolf Kochmann to Pilar Olascoaga on the death of Bette Davis (1989) San Sebastian Festival Archive. [+]
Letter from Luis Buñuel to the Mayor of San Sebastián Antonio Vega de Seoane (1960) San Sebastian Festival Archive. [+]
Letter sent by Antonio de Zulueta y Besson to the Cineclub Irún accepting to collaborate with them (1960) San Sebastian Festival Archive. [+]
Letter from underground filmmaker Antoni Padrós to Pilar Olascoaga (1977) San Sebastian Festival Archive. [+]
Letter from Alfredo Guevara, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Culture of Cuba and founder of ICAIC, to Luis Gasca, Secretary General of the Festival (1977) San Sebastian Festival Archive [+]
HLetter sent by VALIE EXPORT to Festival Director Miguel de Echarri (1977) San Sebastian Festival Archive [+]
Handwritten letter from Jean Cocteau to Antonio de Zulueta y Besson (1959) San Sebastian Festival Archive [+]
ACommunication with the director Pierre Clémenti (1979-1980) San Sebastian Festival Archive. [+]
Accreditation of Pilar Olascoaga to attend the 40th edition of the Berlinale (1990) San Sebastian Festival Archive. [+]
Handwritten note by Pedro Almodóvar (1980) San Sebastian International Film Festival Archive [+]