Hi, my name is Alastair Cole,
I'm a documentary filmmaker based here in Scotland.
It's a pleasure to be here today to celebrate
International Translation Day 2017,
and to talk here on Amara's blog
which is, of course, a wonderful platform for subtitling and translation.
As part of my role as a filmmaker,
subtitling and translation is such a pivotal part to what I do.
Specially as I make films, and at the moment,
I'm making a film about languages, about the subject of language,
including a recent project, a feature documentary project
called, "The Colours of the Alphabet",
which I'm going to talk a little bit about now,
because subtitling and translation have been so pivotal and so fundamental
to how this film is made.
Those in it, those with me on it,
without them I wouldn't be able to have made the film.
The film is a feature documentary,
it released last year at the Glasglow Film Festival,
and it's been turned around festivals and cinemas around the UK,
and in Europe and Africa, since then.
It's the story of three children in a village in Zambia,
in a village called Lwimba.
It's a story of language and politics in education, if you want, and childhood.
It follows the children for 12 months at their first year of school.
And there's a school in the community,
where the community speaks one language, called Soli,
the region and the teacher speak another language, called Nyanja,
and they all must learn English,
because English is the only official language of Zambia,
despite there being 72 different languages,
and only less than 2% of the population speak English at home.
So, of course, it's a film about this political dynamic,
but at the same time, it's a film about childhood, and it's funny,
and it'a film that, hopefully, we can all relate to at times,
remembering those first days at school and their difficulty
but of course,
for someone that is going to school in a different language completely,
these difficulties are really highlighted and exasperated, if you want.
But within the filmmaking process, subtitling and translation is fundamental.
We used multicolored subtitles in the film
to represent the changes in the different languages
that are going on in the classroom, and in somewhere like Zambia.
This multilingualism is incredible, it's very impressive, but of course,
conveying it to a non-indigenous African-language-speaking-audience
is often difficult, and it's often not taken as a priority.
But for us it was a priority,
so we used a creative approach to subtitling, if you want, in the film,
that you can see in the teaser at the end of this video.
Soli, one of the languages, is orange, has orange subtitling,
Nyanja has green subtitling, Bemba has pink subtitling,
and English has white subtitling.
And this technique has been able to foster more conversation, and hopefully,
a greater understanding about this multilingualism that exists,
this beautiful multilingualism that exists and the complexities and the skills
which so many people across the continent embrace this.
And I suppose, within the documentary more broadly,
subtitling and translation is so important, and my team --
and is my team for this film that I talk about.
My team of subtitlers and translators in Zambia,
Suwilanji Ngambi, Peter Lupiya, and Brighton Lubasi were so important,
and without them I wouldn't be able to make the film.
And also my team in the UK, Elena Zini and those in Screen Language,
who helped to bring the film to international audiences,
and creating foreign language versions of the film.
But more generally, a documentary film having translation
and translators that work seriously on a project,
to understand the importance of representing someone,
that language can be misconstrued and misunderstood in translation
isn't taken seriously, is so important.
I think documentary filmmaking provides a specific case, sometimes,
because people and the film that an audience can see and hear
are real people before and after the film,
and so, their accurate representation is so important,
and their understanding of them as people is so important.
I think translation and subtitling can do a wonderful job there
to help audiences around the world
experience different culture and languages, but also, at the same time,
understand people in the best way possible.
I suppose I also want to mention a new project that we're working on
around "The Colours of the Alphabet",
but the release of "The Colours of the Alphabet"
in early next year across Africa,
where it'll be broadcasted into 49 different countries with Afridocs.
And as part of the broadcast we're working with Amara
to create 25 indigenous language versions of the film.
It's a really exciting project for us
because, of course, we want the film to travel across Africa,
is where the film is made,
is where, hopefully, the film speaks to a lot of audiences.
But, at the same time,
it's important that the film is seen in the languages of the audience,
that is the end goal of the film,
but we also want people to be able to understand it in their terms.
So, we're going to be working in the next months
with indigenous language subtitlers and translators
to create 25 different language versions.
We're going to be offering them the opportunity to train and work with us,
and at the end of the day,
for people to be able to subtitle and translate this film,
and hopefully, foster what can be one of the first
Africa-wide-film-translation-network.
So, keep an eye on that, keep an eye on the website below,
coloursofthealphabet.com
but also on our Facebook page,
and you'll see more announcement about this exciting project.
And before we go, you can watch a teaser at the end this film
and finally, another big, happy International Translation Day!
And a message of thumbs up
to all the ones who are subtitlers and translators working out there.
Thanks!
[music]