In a Nearby Field
By Laida Lertxundi and Ren Ebel
16min, 35mm, color, sound, 2023
Produced by DOXA Producciones
A man, a woman and their young daughter live together in an apartment in the Basque Country. Domestic chores and everyday gestures are superimposed onto lush, green landscapes. The filmmakers and their stand-ins reinterpret fragments of a diary. Music fills the house while children's drawings come to life. Combining quiet observation and moments of fantasy, In a Nearby Field is a film about support, heredity and the invisible little labors which sustain us.
Director’s statement
This film unfolded from our interest in what the American artist Merle Laderman Ukeles identified as “Maintenance Art”—an art contrary to notions of individuality, destruction, and the avant-garde, which might instead reflect the daily maintenance of our species, invisible and endless tasks, equilibrium, and what Ukeles called “The Life Instinct.” As artists, partners and parents of a child, we wanted to see what would happen if we fully integrated the mak- ing of a film with our daily life, using everyday routines, objects and gestures as material for the film. In a Nearby Field is the result of that experiment.
Made with: Hanah Lur Ebel Lertxundi, Miren Barrena, Izaskun Araluzea, Ander Sagastiberrri, Rocío Agudo, Unai Ruíz Ameztoy, Kai Ruíz Alonso, Martina Ruíz Alonso, Iraci Mara and Eneko Mantiñan.
Shot in the Basque Country: Parte Vieja and Urgull, Donostia; Fuenternilla, Karranza; Urkiola; La Galea and Humedal Gobela, Getxo; Astrabudua, Solokoetxe, Indautxu and La Peña, Bilbao
Produced by: DOXA Producciones,Ainhoa Andraka, Zuri Goikoetxea and Lucila Rodríguez Canle
Sound post production: Xanti Salvador
Color: Clara Rus
Graphic Design: Gabrielle Pulgar
“Distills an unusual warmth, a heightened sensuality, a feeling for the small joys and pleasures found in togetherness”
Cristina Álvarez López, film critic
“Shatters the barriers between public and private lives”
María Palacios Cruz, curator, writer, academic
In a Nearby Field is a candidate for the Goya awards, 2025. Press release
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back
By Laida Lertxundi and Ren Ebel
16min, 35mm, color, sound, 2023
Produced by DOXA Producciones
A man, a woman and their young daughter live together in an apartment in the Basque Country. Domestic chores and everyday gestures are superimposed onto lush, green landscapes. The filmmakers and their stand-ins reinterpret fragments of a diary. Music fills the house while children's drawings come to life. Combining quiet observation and moments of fantasy, In a Nearby Field is a film about support, heredity and the invisible little labors which sustain us.
Director’s statement
This film unfolded from our interest in what the American artist Merle Laderman Ukeles identified as “Maintenance Art”—an art contrary to notions of individuality, destruction, and the avant-garde, which might instead reflect the daily maintenance of our species, invisible and endless tasks, equilibrium, and what Ukeles called “The Life Instinct.” As artists, partners and parents of a child, we wanted to see what would happen if we fully integrated the mak- ing of a film with our daily life, using everyday routines, objects and gestures as material for the film. In a Nearby Field is the result of that experiment.
Made with: Hanah Lur Ebel Lertxundi, Miren Barrena, Izaskun Araluzea, Ander Sagastiberrri, Rocío Agudo, Unai Ruíz Ameztoy, Kai Ruíz Alonso, Martina Ruíz Alonso, Iraci Mara and Eneko Mantiñan.
Shot in the Basque Country: Parte Vieja and Urgull, Donostia; Fuenternilla, Karranza; Urkiola; La Galea and Humedal Gobela, Getxo; Astrabudua, Solokoetxe, Indautxu and La Peña, Bilbao
Produced by: DOXA Producciones,Ainhoa Andraka, Zuri Goikoetxea and Lucila Rodríguez Canle
Sound post production: Xanti Salvador
Color: Clara Rus
Graphic Design: Gabrielle Pulgar
“Distills an unusual warmth, a heightened sensuality, a feeling for the small joys and pleasures found in togetherness”
Cristina Álvarez López, film critic
“Shatters the barriers between public and private lives”
María Palacios Cruz, curator, writer, academic
In a Nearby Field is a candidate for the Goya awards, 2025. Press release
--
back