In February 1960, the recently founded Cineclub Irún (CCI) wrote to the San Sebastian Film Festival inviting the director of the time, Antonio de Zulueta y Besson, to contribute to the magazine published by the organisation on its monthly programme.

Zulueta answered with this letter in which he celebrates the existence and untiring work of the Gipuzkoan film clubs which, “facelessly and in complicated economic conditions”, work to exchange film knowledge and cultivate spectators. The letter is an important gesture of mutual recognition: the event guaranteed access to its screenings and publications to the organisers of numerous film clubs and cultural centres while in turn recognising the need to draw on the audiences educated throughout the year by these self-same film associations.

Promoted by Jorge Oteiza and Néstor Basterretxea, the Cineclub Irún was a fundamental pillar in the Basque cultural scene. A place of meeting and reflection for moviemakers, musicians, writers and artists including Rafael Ruiz Balerdi, Menchu Gal and Amable Arias, not to mention rewarding exchanges with other film clubs such as those of Errenteria, Pasajes and Azpeitia. It was also a socio-political space in view of the club’s cross-border location: a place from which to imagine the building of international networks at a time when freedom was greatly restricted.

Its educational aspect and its drawing power for a variety of aesthetic expressions laid the way to the creation of numerous events, programmes and seminars, such as the 1st Cinema Meeting for Children, the Competition for Amateur Filmmakers and the organisation in October 1961 of the 1st Art Week, one of the most ebullient collective experiences in the history of the film club, which brought to the table discussions on the today and tomorrow of contemporary Basque art.