Introducing the 2020 edition of the Thinking, Letrak eta Futbola festival

The 2020 “Thinking, Letrak eta Futbola” festival has been unveiled by Jon Vázquez Eguskiza, CEO of the Athletic Club Foundation, Gorka Martínez, chairman of BBK, Itxaso Erroteta, Councillor for Youth and Sport of Bilbao City Council, and Galder Reguera, Project Manager of the Foundation.

Due to the global pandemic, the Athletic Club Foundation has merged the Thinking Football Film Festival and the Literature and Football Festival into one in 2020. It will be a week of cinema, meetings and football culture held in Bilbao at Sala BBK and San Mamés between Monday, November 9 and Saturday, November 14, with free admission via prior reservation.

Premiere with Aritz Aduriz
The festival will open at Sala BBK with the broadcast of an exclusive, special edition of the documentary series Six Dreams, which covers Aritz Aduriz‘s last year at Athletic Club. This unique cut can only be seen at this event. It will be shown on Monday 9, at 19:00, and the event will comply with all the safety measures in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19. After the screening of the documentary, the Athletic legend will talk to Jon Maia about his last year as an active player. Prior to this, the Audience Award will be presented to the winning film of the 2019 Thinking Football Film Festival.

John Carlin, Howard Kendall and Karmele Jaio
The new “Thinking, Letrak eta Futbola” festival has many different enticing events related to film and literature. For example, John Carlin and Ander Izagirre will have a conversation after the screening of the first episode of “This is Football”, the documentary series directed by Carlin. This will be on Tuesday, November 10, at San Mamés.

The following day, the much-loved former Athletic Club manager Howard Kendall will be the protagonist, with the screening of the documentary “Howard’s Way”. On Thursday, Karmele Jaio, recent winner of the Euskadi Award for Literature, will talk to Amets Arzallus and Igor Elortza, and on Friday, the literary meeting will be hosted by writers José Ignacio Carnero and Carlos Zanón. Finally, the festival will close on Saturday at San Mamés with the screening of the documentaries “Buscando a Panzeri” (Looking for Panzeri), about the legendary Argentinean sports journalist and his story, and “Vatreni”, which tells the tale of the Croatian national team’s exploits at the 1998 World Cup in the context of the civil war and the process of Croatia’s independence.

Podcasts
The festival’s 2020 website (www.thinkingletrasyfutbol.com) has a podcast section, featuring five podcasts sponsored by the festival, which will analyse the relationship between football and music, films, literature, popular culture and other related aspects.

Tickets available from October 29

As with every year, entry to the festival is free. From October 29 onwards, those wishing to attend can reserve a ticket for the festival on the official website: www.thinkingletrasyfutbol.com. Through the system put in place, you will receive a ticket containing a QR code via email. However, bear in mind that attendance will be restricted to a third of Sala BBK and San Mamés’ maximum capacity.

“Ser Williams”, Athletic Reading Club and irakurLE-ON
As it does every year, the Foundation will publish a special book to coincide with the festival. This year’s book is entitled “Ser Williams” (Being Williams) and was written by Igor Porset Domingo, an Athletic Club Genuine player, following the Easy Reading model, in collaboration with Jose Mari Isasi.

In the book, Igor, who was born with Williams Syndrome, recounts memorable episodes from his childhood to the present day. It is a simple but authentic look at family, friendship, music, football and Athletic. The Athletic Reading Club, where Athletic Club players share readings with their fans, will also resume shortly and the irakurLE-ON posters are currently being distributed to schools.