euskalkultura.eus

Madrid, Spain.  The first Contest of Shorts for Basque students at Madrid’s Basque club was a total success and was also a surprise.  It was a surprise because the initial idea was to make a video to participate in Barcelona’s short film contest, but the response was so good, with 11 entries in all, that the club in Madrid decided to organize their own contest.

The first review of entries took place on April 4 at the Pello Aramburu hall at the Euskal Etxea.  Entries included:

- Pintxamus? (1^st year)
- Euskararen koloreak (3^rd year)
- Irauten (2^nd year)
- Sin pagatzen (1^st year)

- Maite ditugu (Advanced)
- Euskalbollywood (4^th year)
- Pixka bat gehiago (5^th year)
- Hizkuntza ulertezina (3^rd year)
- Klasean (4^th year)
- Hau kaxualitatea (1^st year)
- Txarto edo txarra? (3^rd year)

The students at the euskaltegi and the audience chose five finalists that were "Irauten," "Euskalbollywood," "Hizkuntza ulertezina," "Klasean" and "Txarto edo txarra.”  The final decision was made on April 6 with a jury composed of actors Gorka Otxoa and Ramon Ibarra as well as HABE technician Kinku Zinkunegi.  They chose “Euskalbollywood,” as the winner and awarded its creators a meal at the Euskal Etxea. 

This is the winning short:

To end the festivities, the short made by the children of the Euskera Txoko was shown, outside of the competition.

[The children were also awarded: each one took away a gift from the Euskal Etxea (photo MadrilEE/HABE)]

Next year in Europe

According to HABE sources, these kinds of activities are very useful in Basque classes at the Euskal etxea level that face the difficulty of teaching Basque in a non-Basque speaking environment, and so need to create places of visibility. In the same way, Barcelona is now celebrating its 9th edition of a Basque short contest and the experience in Madrid has shown great initiative.

For this reason, HABE and various Basque clubs are looking at the possibility of organizing a similar contest next year on the European level, so that Basque students in Basque clubs all over Europe could participate.