A Language Not Their Own: Transnational Production in “Foreign” Dialogue

Abstract

Cultural and linguistic border-crossings are at the heart of transna-tional filmmaking practice, and language barriers pose uniquechallenges and opportunities to these crossings. Media productionin a language one does not speak or understand may raise ques-tions of authenticity, exploitation, and misrepresentation, while alsoallowing filmmakers to reach wider audiences and promptingreflection on the instability of national borders in production con-texts. The articles in this special issue include case studies andbroader examinations of multilingual and translingual trends incontemporary screen media production. The screen texts studiedinclude documentary, narrative feature films, and streaming seriesmade using American and French Sign Languages (ASL, LSF),Danish, English, French, Greek, Japanese, Kurdish, Navajo, Polish,Sámi, and Swedish. While these screen texts developed in responseto different incentives and their productions involved diverse prac-tical and ethical considerations, they share fundamental similaritiesin the language barriers encountered during production and acts oftranslation, multilingualism, and creative collaboration involved inovercoming these barriers. Informed by insights from DeafCriticism, biopolitics, cultural studies, and transnational film theory,these articles intervene in cultural studies discussions of nation,language, and identity and the evolving discourse around repre-sentation and authenticity in screen media. Show more