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A Time of Destiny Cinematographers Greg Nava and Anna Thomas (El Norte) of Alive Films Motion Pictures have completed a film entitled A Time of Destiny. The plot, set in the San Diego area during the Second World War, deals with generational crisis in a Basque-American family. The film was released nationally on April 22 by Columbia Pictures and stars William Hurt, Timothy Hutton, Melissa Leo, Francisco Rabal and Stockard Channing. Greg Nava and William Hurt visited the Basque Studies Program in Reno in order to discuss some of the film's details. During production the Program provided additional consultation. Greg Nava is Basque on his mother's side. His maternal grandfather, who was surnamed Loperena, had a sheep ranch in Baja California. William A. Douglass recently asked Greg Nava about the film: WAD: How would you characterize your approach to film making? GN: I consider myself to be a dream realist. It is a style in which we attempt to show the inner life of the characters on the screen by depicting their dreams and thoughts. In fact, this inner life forms a central part of the plot. Dream realism is therefore anti-documentary in essence. It also tends to be rich in emotionalism and borders on the operatic. If I were to cite examples from literature, I would equate it with the style of many contemporary Latin American writers. It is a common technique in the works of James Joyce and is found in those of the Basque philosopher and novelist Miguel de Unamuno. I personally find it very compatible with Basque temperament. I tried to use this perspective when filming El Norte. WAD: How biographical in terms of your own family background is A Time of Destiny? GN: The story itself is fictional, but I drew upon my own boyhood experiences for much of the Basque flavor. I do not regard it as a Basque film, however, in that the subject is universal. We wanted to examine generational conflict within a family, the contrasts between the old as represented by the patriarchal European-born generation and the new attitudes of its American-born children. This was a common situation in many immigrant homes by the 1940s. Italians, Armenians and others who have seen A Time of Destiny identify strongly with the film since they experienced similar pressures within their own families. However, for me it was easier to give the film authenticity by including the Basque background with which I was most familiar. By placing the film in the war years, it was possible to view the generational conflict within one family against the broader setting of a changing world in which the old and new were locked in combat. As a third generation person, I felt somewhat removed from the revolt of my parents' generation against the patriarchal world, which allowed me to be more objective about it. Above all, it is a story of survival since after much adversity and tragedy, the unity of the family is reaffirmed. Pau Scholarship The USBC Consortium and The Basque Studies Program would like to thank the Conseil General des Pyrenees Atlantiques and the French Consulate for providing a $5,000 scholarship to an American student of Basque or Bernais descent. The scholarship was provided to enable a student to engage in French and Basque studies in Pau, France. |
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