Film Artzainak: Shepherds and Sheep, makes debut on Basque TV

This Friday a program entitled "Film Laburrak", which shows on Basque television''s third channel ETB-3, will be showing the short film Artzainak: Shepherds and Sheep by US filmmakers Jacob Griswald and Javi Zubizarreta, which gives an account of the hard lives of Basque shepherds on the Idaho hills.

Griswold and Zubizarreta produced Artzainak: Shepherds and Sheep as part of their documentary production course for the Film, Television and Theater Department at Notre Dame.

Growing up in the Basque Community in Idaho, Javi had always been fascinated by the lore of the sheepherder and the story of the shepherd in solitude, alone in the wilderness. "It''s a subject I''ve always been fascinated by and wanted to explore. I wanted to learn whether that idealized image of the sheepherder was true or not, and what it really means to herd sheep," Javi explains.

The film will be showing on Friday night as part of a series of short films.