GUK, nosotros
Back in 2009, I spent a week learning Basque in Las Flores, Argentina. I had studied online that year with the HABE’s Euskara Munduan program, but there was no intensive Basque program in the US that year (the first one did not happen until 2011 in Boise), so I packed my bags and flew all the way to the southern hemisphere.
Everyday we’d get up early, have a quick breakfast at the hotel, then walk the five minutes to the civic center where the classes were set up. I made more friends that week in Las Flores than I had the previous year in Boise. Some were Argentinians, some Uruguayans, and there even was a guy from Chile. Three years later, I’m still in touch with most of them.
One day, a young woman came into the class to do interviews for a project on Argentinian and Uruguayan Basques. She put a microphone on our chest and fired away. She wanted to know our motivation to study Basque, our reasons for attending the barnetegi. She let me take part too, even though I was a girl from Bilbao who’d come to the classes from the USA. I had totally forgotten about it until today, when I got an email from the girl with a link to the project’s website and a little bit of background.
Three years ago, Nuria Vilalta embarked on a documentary project called “GUK, nosotros”, which was shaped and developed thanks to the help of many people. The documentary is made up of interviews, information, meetings, and dances, amongst many other things. She talked to producers in Argentina as well as the Basque Country. The idea was to film a TV documentary which did not happen in the end. However, despite the lack of economic resources, Nuria worked hard to see the project through. She and her team managed to finish the documentary, a one hour film you can see on their website: www.guknosotros.com.
Many of my friends come up in the video, like Leonat Egiazabal, Rocío Basterra, Martin Zabalza and Alejo Conti. Even I have a little saying towards the end!
The documentary was filmed mainly in Spanish and Basque, but there are English subtitles available. As Nuria says in her email, we hope you can see the movie and share it, as a documentary is only finished when people watch it.
