INTRODUCTION

Welcome to a new edition of Zinegoak full of excitement and cultural proposals. A very special edition in which the Festival celebrates 20 years in its efforts to be a space for visibility, vindication, meeting and reflection on sexual diversity, identity and/or gender.

Zinegoak has restructured and changed its dates in order to continue working to raise awareness and denounce, promoting new imaginaries and narratives that contribute to social transformation through art, film and culture.

Zinegoak 2023 focuses on fluid identities, understanding that gender is a place of change and discovery. Once again we vindicate the freedom and legitimacy of deciding who we are, with an open view on sexual diversity, different orientations, the construction of gender identity or any other element linked to sexuality. This is reflected in the image of this edition, which invites us to feel, touch, discover and play. And in the programme of Zinegoak 2023, through the films in the Official Section, the short film programmes, the stage pieces, the Bilgune spaces for debate and reflection, and the ZG/PRO cultural industry and innovation space.

Trans, lesbian, bisexual, queer, non-binary and gay experiences, which show us different realities of processes of questioning imposed stereotypes, of deconstruction of the norm, and of the search for respect within society.

The sexual awakening, recognising oneself (Wolf and Dog, Something You Said Last Night), the enjoyment of our bodies (Fierce: A Porn Revolution), the return to the place of origin (Liuben), the archive of memories (Casa Susanna, Anhell69), the struggle to eliminate the hegemonic structures of oppression (Wildhood, Who I Am Not) and the illusion of showing and thinking about other worlds (Otherness, De noche los gatos son pardos) are some of the proposals of this edition.

The Zinegoak 2023 Honorary Award, sponsored by DAMA, will be granted to Ángeles Cruz, a Mexican actress, screenwriter and film director whose films reflect her social denouncement as a woman, indigenous and lesbian. Last year she received the Lesbianism and Gender Award at the Festival for the multi-award winning film Nudo mixteco, a story that shows some of the struggles that Mixtec women live, such as the right to sexual freedom and the defence of their bodies in the face of male violence.

ZG Hedapena remains as a solid commitment to creating activities that make diversity visible through film in more than 45 locations in the Basque Autonomous Community and Navarre. Lekeitio, for its part, continues to be a sub-venue of the Festival thanks to the collaboration with Euskal Zine Bilera.

I invite you to come and enjoy this new edition that the whole Zinegoak team has prepared with great effort and enthusiasm, so that the festival continues to be a space for meeting, reflection and awareness that vindicates diversity.

Alaitz Arenzana Letamendi

Artistic director