Agreement between the Provincial Council and the UPV/EHU to turn EQZE into an official university centre

The Vice-Chancellor of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Nekane Balluerka, and the Provincial Councillor for Culture, Denis Itxaso, today signed an agreement making the Elías Querejeta Film School an affiliated centre of the UPV/EHU.

The school was established and is funded by the Gipuzkoa Provincial Council. It is an international centre for reflection, research, experimental practice and pedagogic innovation focused around the present, past and future of film. It is the result of a collaborative effort involving three film institutions which, in response to an initiative promoted by the Gipuzkoa Provincial Council’s Department of Culture, participated in its initial design and conception: the Basque Film Library, the San Sebastián Film Festival and the Tabakalera International Centre for Contemporary Culture.

‘This agreement reflects the success and consolidation achieved by the school in just one year,’ explained Itxaso, ‘and is another step forward in the strategic project set in motion by the Department of Culture, in one of the most artistically and economically important creative fields in the province of Gipuzkoa. We have far exceeded the goals we set at the beginning of this last term of office.’

The Provincial Councillor for Culture also highlighted the fact that the EQZE continues to garner new partners, since in addition to the Film Festival, Tabakalera and the Basque Film Library, it is currently working with the Basque Public University to further consolidate its network of alliances, which is one of the keys of the entire project. ‘This project arose naturally out of all parties’ willingness to collaborate and reach an agreement. I would also like to highlight that this agreement will not affect the independence or singularity of the EQZE’s proposal, which is one of its principal values.’

For her part, the Vice-Chancellor of the UPV/EHU expressed her satisfaction with the agreement: ‘teaching and research are two of the university’s main activities, but it also seeks to foster artistic creation in the field of Fine Arts and other disciplines. Now, with the Elías Querejeta Film School becoming an affiliated centre of the university we can delve deeper into the world of film through its three postgraduate courses. The school will have the academic support of the university, and the university will be able to strengthen its offer in the field of film, an industry and an art which are vital to understanding and transforming contemporary culture.’

According to the Vice-Chancellor, the agreement will open up new academic possibilities: ‘The school is now located within the UPV/EHU framework, which bestows its hallmark of quality on the three postgraduate courses. Our university can offer academic visibility to the project and broaden the university-based opportunities available to its students. For its part, the school attracts interesting figures from the film world to San Sebastián, to teach on its courses. As well as helping us broaden our training offer, this also offers the opportunity to establish new alliances in the fields of research and knowledge transfer. I am convinced that the school becoming part of the university will be to the benefit of both institutions, and will help further consolidate the already firm commitment that both San Sebastián and Gipuzkoa have always had to the world of film.’

The agreement

According to the agreement, the UPV/EHU will recognise the current postgraduate degrees in Archives, Curation and Creation as official Master’s degrees. The registration period for the 2019-2020 academic year starts this Friday. The courses run by the school will have the same academic value and (where appropriate) the same professional value as those run by internal UPV/EHU faculties and colleges. They will also be advertised by the university alongside those offered by said faculties and colleagues, and the diplomas and qualifications earned will be issued by the Vice-Chancellor.

While working in collaboration with the UPV/EHU, the school will retain complete autonomy, with its current pedagogic project and management and financing models remaining unchanged. After becoming part of the UPV/EHU, both students and the university will form part of the Management Committee charged with running the school.

While working in collaboration with the UPV/EHU, the school will retain complete autonomy, with its current pedagogic project and management and financing models remaining unchanged. After becoming part of the UPV/EHU, both students and the university will form part of the Management Committee charged with running the school.

The agreement initially covers a four-year period, but will be tacitly extended for a further four years unless one of the signatory parties expresses their desire to terminate it.

2019-2020 Course registration

The period for applying for a place on the courses being offered by the Elías Querejeta Film School for the 2019-2020 academic year starts this Friday, 1 February, and ends 31 May. The academic year will last 56 weeks, divided into six modules each lasting between five and six weeks. The subjects and activities included in each module focus around a central theme in each specialist area. The aim of this approach and its three itineraries is for students to acquire as broad and cross-cutting a vision as possible, to enable them to enter into dialogue with the three tenses of film: the past (research and conservation), the present (curation and programming) and the future (creation).

In this sense, the Archive course aims to train specialists in identifying, classifying, restoring and conserving film and audiovisual heritage, while the Curation course focuses on the conceptualisation, management, development and dissemination of all kinds of programmes, publications, interventions and exhibitions centred around film and the audiovisual arts. Finally, the Creation course seeks to provide all those interested in making films and artistic audiovisual works with the theoretical and methodological training they require, as well as affording them the opportunity to engage in practical exploration.

The intake for each course is limited to 15 students, and enrolment costs €3,900 (this covers administrative, management and tuition fees and university services). Applicants can pre-enrol through the school's website: www.zine-eskola.eus.