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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

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to celebrate
International Translation Day 2017,

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and to talk to you about Amara as well,

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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 in it,
without them,

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I wouldn't have been able
to made the film.

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The film is a feature documentary,

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it released last year
at the Glasglow Festival,

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and it's been turned around
festivals and cinemas

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around the UK, 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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and it reminds us of those days
at schools and their difficulties,

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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 languages
that are going on in the classroom

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and 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 ping subtitling,

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and English has white subtitling.

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And this technique has fostered
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 my team for this film
is what I talk about.

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My team of subtitlers and translators
in Zambia, [names]

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[names]
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 [names]

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and those screen languages,

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who helped to bring the film
to international audiences,

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and creating foreign languages
for the film.

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But more generally, 
in documentary filmmaking

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having translation, and translators
that work seriously to approach it,

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to understand the importance
of representing someone,

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and that language can be misconstrued

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and [ ] stood a translation 
isn't taken seriously is so important.

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And I think documentary filmmaking
provides the 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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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
has done a wonderful job

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to help audiences around the world
experience cultures and languages,

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but also, at the same time,

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understand people
in the best way possible.

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I also want to mention a new project
that I'm working on

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around "The Colours of the Alphabet",

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the release of 
"The Colours of the Alphabet"

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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 we want the film
to travel across Africa,

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is where the film is made,

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is where 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 [ ] 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 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 help to translate 
and subtitle this film,

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and hopefully, foster what could be

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one of the first 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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http://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 of this film

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and finally, a big, happy
International Translation Day!

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and our message and thumbs up

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to all of those subtitlers 
and translators working out there.

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Thanks!