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Hi, my name is Alastair Cole.

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I'm a documentary filmmaker [br]based here in Scotland.

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It's a pleasure to be here today

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to celebrate[br]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[br]for subtitling and translation.

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As part of my role as a filmmaker,

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

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Specially at the moment,[br]I'm making a film about languages,

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about the subject of language,

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including a recent project,[br]a feature documentary project

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called, "The Colours of the Alphabet",

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

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because translation and subtitling[br]have been so pivotal and so fundamental

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to help this film made.

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Those in it, those with me in it,

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without them I wouldn't have been able[br]to have made the film.

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The film is a feature documentary,

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it released last year[br]at the Glasglow Festival,

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and it's been turned around[br]festivals and cinemas

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around the UK, in Europe and Africa,[br]since then.

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It's the story of three children[br]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[br]in education, if you want, and childhood.

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It follows the children for 12 months[br]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[br]one language called Soli,

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the region and the teacher speak[br]another language, called Nyanja,

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and they all must learn English,

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because English is the only [br]official language of Zambia,

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despite being 72 languages,

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

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

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but at the same time,[br]it's a film about childhood,

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and it's funny, [br]and it'a film that, hopefully,

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we can all relate to at times,

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and it reminds us of those days[br]at schools and their difficulties,

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but of course,

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

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

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But in the film-making process,[br]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[br]that are going in the classroom

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and somewhere like Zambia.

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

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conveying it to a non-indigenous[br]African language speaking audience

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

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But for us it was a priority, so we used,

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a creative approach to subtitling,[br]if you want, in the film,

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as you can see in the teaser it,[br]at the end of this video.

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Soli, one of the languages, is orange,[br]has orange subtitling,

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Nyanja has green subtitling,[br]Bemba has ping subtitling,

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and English has white subtitling.

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And this technic has foster[br]more conversation

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and hopefully, a greater understanding[br]that this multilingualism that exists,

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this beautiful multilingualism that exists

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and the complexities and the skills,

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which so many people across the continent[br]embrace this.

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And I suppose, [br]within the documentary more broadly,

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subtitling and translation is so important

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and my team for this film[br]is what I talk about.

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My team of subtitlers and translators[br]in Zambia, [3:04]