WEBVTT

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Hi, my name is Alastair Cole,

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I'm a documentary filmmaker 
based here in Scotland.

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It's a pleasure to be here today
to celebrate

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International Translation Day 2017,

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and to talk here on Amara's blog

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which is, of course, a wonderful platform
for subtitling and translation.

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As part of my role as a filmmaker,

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subtitling and translation
is such a pivotal part to what I do.

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Specially as I make films,
and at the moment,

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I'm making a film about languages,
about the subject of language,

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including a recent project,
a feature documentary project

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called, "The Colours of the Alphabet",

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which I'm going to talk
a little bit about now,

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because subtitling and translation
have been so pivotal and so fundamental

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to how this film is made.

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Those in it, those with me on it,

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without them I wouldn't be able
to have made the film.

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The film is a feature documentary,

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it released last year
at the Glasglow Film Festival,

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and it's been turned around
festivals and cinemas around the UK,

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and in Europe and Africa, since then.

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It's the story of three children
in a village in Zambia,

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in a village called Lwimba.

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It's a story of language and politics
in education, if you want, and childhood.

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It follows the children for 12 months
at their first year of school.

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And there's a school in the community,

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where the community speaks
one language, called Soli,

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the region and the teacher speak
another language, called Nyanja,

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and they all must learn English,

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because English is the only 
official language of Zambia,

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despite there being
72 different languages,

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and only less than 2% of the population
speak English at home.

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So, of course, it's a film about
this political dynamic,

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but at the same time, it's a film
about childhood, and it's funny,

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and it'a film that, hopefully,
we can all relate to at times,

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remembering those first days
at school and their difficulty

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but of course,

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for someone that is going to school
in a different language completely,

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these difficulties are really highlighted
and exasperated, if you want.

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But within the filmmaking process,
subtitling and translation is fundamental.

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We used multicolored subtitles in the film

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to represent the changes 
in the different languages

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that are going on in the classroom,
and in somewhere like Zambia.

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This multilingualism is incredible,
it's very impressive, but of course,

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conveying it to a non-indigenous
African-language-speaking-audience

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is often difficult, and it's often
not taken as a priority.

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But for us it was a priority,

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so we used a creative approach 
to subtitling, if you want, in the film,

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that you can see in the teaser
at the end of this video.

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Soli, one of the languages, is orange,
has orange subtitling,

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Nyanja has green subtitling,
Bemba has pink subtitling,

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and English has white subtitling.

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And this technique has been able to foster
more conversation, and hopefully,

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a greater understanding
about this multilingualism that exists,

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this beautiful multilingualism that exists
and the complexities and the skills

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which so many people 
across the continent embrace this.

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And I suppose, 
within the documentary more broadly,

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subtitling and translation 
is so important, and my team --

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and is my team for this film
that I talk about.

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My team of subtitlers 
and translators in Zambia,

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Suwilanji Ngambi, Peter Lupiya,
and Brighton Lubasi were so important,

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and without them 
I wouldn't be able to make the film.

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And also my team in the UK,
Elena Zini and those in Screen Language,

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who helped to bring the film
to international audiences,

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and creating
foreign language versions of the film.

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But more generally, 
a documentary film having translation

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and translators that work seriously
on a project,

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to understand the importance
of representing someone,

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that language can be misconstrued
and misunderstood in translation

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isn't taken seriously, is so important.

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I think documentary filmmaking
provides a specific case, sometimes,

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because people and the film
that an audience can see and hear

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are real people before and after the film,

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and so, their accurate representation
is so important,

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and their understanding of them
as people is so important.

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I think translation and subtitling
can do a wonderful job there

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to help audiences around the world

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experience different culture
and languages, but also, at the same time,

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understand people
in the best way possible.

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I suppose I also want to mention
a new project that we're working on

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around "The Colours of the Alphabet",

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but the release of
"The Colours of the Alphabet"

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in early next year across Africa,

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where it'll be broadcasted into 
49 different countries with Afridocs.

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And as part of the broadcast
we're working with Amara

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to create 25 indigenous language versions
of the film.

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It's a really exciting project for us

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because, of course, we want the film
to travel across Africa,

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is where the film is made,

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is where, hopefully, 
the film speaks to a lot of audiences.

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But, at the same time,

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it's important that the film is seen
in the languages of the audience,

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that is the end goal of the film,

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but we also want people to be able
to understand it in their terms.

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So, we're going to be working
in the next months

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with indigenous language
subtitlers and translators

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to create 25 different language versions.

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We're going to be offering them 
the opportunity to train and work with us,

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and at the end of the day,

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for people to be able 
to subtitle and translate this film,

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and hopefully, foster what can be
one of the first

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Africa-wide-film-translation-network.

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So, keep an eye on that,
keep an eye on the website below,

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coloursofthealphabet.com

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but also on our Facebook page,

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and you'll see more announcement
about this exciting project.

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And before we go, you can watch
a teaser at the end this film

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and finally, another big, happy
International Translation Day!

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And a message of thumbs up

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to all the ones who are subtitlers
and translators working out there.

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Thanks!

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[music]

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[music]