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In the 1960s, a Basque man named Gotzon Elortza filmed three documentaries in the Basque language. Ereagatik Matxitxakora, Elburua Gernika and Aberria were all filmed during furtive trips made back by Elortza from Paris, where he resided, to his native Basque Country. Elortza, apparently exiled in France, would secretly cross the border into State territory to film scenes and people from the era, aware of the importance of audiovisual media to the survival of a language.

Now, the councils of Getxo, Gernika and Bermeo, the Community of Uribe Kosta and the Provincial Council of Biscay are jointly undertaking a project to renovate these filmed works, according to the Getxo consistory the first ever documentaries to exist in Euskera. Considered "of great historical, ethnographic and linguistic value," up until now they could be found in the Basque Film Library in Donostia-San Sebastian.

The job of remastering the tapes is being carried out by a laboratory in Barcelona, which will allow them to maintain their value for another 50 years.

In his own words, Gotzon Elortza, now 86 and once again living in Getxo, "the documentaries were very innocent because the repression was so great." The author has said he is "happy" that his work has been acknowledged, though also commented that "these are things from 50 years ago; I believe the documents were important for their time but they were undervalued".

On April 23rd, a section of the documentaries can be seen at the Musika Eskola de Andrés Isasi, in Getxo, from 7.30pm onwards.