1. 3 years ago 
   "I’ve been losing my words"
   -

   Immersion

   Directed by Robyn Woolston and Written by Reina Yaidoo

2. 3 years ago 

   Immersion is a short creative documentary about endangered languages.

   When I first conceived to write this film I considered straigtforward interviews with the relevant participants, linguists, speakers of the endangered language etc. This would have been an excellent concept but I felt the subject could be dealt with more purposefully using the most individual aspect.

   
   Language

   Language is complex, abstract and beautiful. We use it to convey emotions, during conflict, at our happiest, loneliest, for religion, culture, medicine, in all our endeavours. When it disappears it’s not an obscure tool which is lost but people, their thoughts, lives, history and perspective on things.

   
   The film is written as if an endangered language had come alive. How would it see its fate? How would it react to the forces and attractions of more dominant languages? Luckily this view allowed me to bring in the more abstract nature of language.

   One of the initial phrases said by Lema, the endangered language is
   “I searched in the usual places, tried to jog my memory and retraced my steps.”
   Where and how can you find a lost/endangered language?

    Here is  the wonderful Immersion.  I hope you find it as poetic, lyrical and thought-provoking as its subject.

3. 3 years ago 
   click here for ongoing blog and more

    blog, festivals, podcasts translations, script, features and more

4. 3 years ago 
   DOMINANT LANGUAGE : the next time I see her there's going to be a misunderstanding

   PASSENGER: If you hadn't interrupted me you would have heard by now how far she fell, when she fell, and for whom she fell. Imagine a whole world vision, concepts in oblivion.....

   DOMINANT LANGUAGE: They say a cemetery is a place filled with irreplaceable people

   PASSENGER: True...
5. 3 years ago 
   "…..retraced my steps"
6. 3 years ago 
7. 3 years ago 
   "I’ve searched in the usual places."
8. 3 years ago 
9. 3 years ago 

   Unesco’s Audiovisual E-Platform

   One of the last things I added to the script before sending it off was that all the images on screen were rich and saturated. I remember being asked what all that was about and I said “Well languages are…..colourful.” Robyn probably thought I was crazy but nevertheless that detail is part of the film. Of course visually colours bring mood and vibrancy to an image and the same can be said for words. What a schmuck!!! I love that word. It’s a word where even if you don’t know what it means you know the person saying it isn’t feeling much love for you. You also get to both screw your face while saying the sch sound and a nice uck to boot or at least the way I say it.
   
   I was reminded of it in a good way and hopefully I’m not being one now as I tell you, pre-emptively perhaps, that I’ve been in contact with the Winnipeg Yiddish Women’s Reading Circle. They’re on UNESCO’s Register of good practices. They may be translating Immersion into Yiddish for me so watch this space. I’m hoping to get translations of Immersion into several endangered languages. I’ve been looking at Ainu, Ket, Scots Gaelic among others for translation. Hopefully the communities will be as excited as I am about the project. The translations should be going up as podcasts to download as and when they come in. It seems so rare to be able to listen to the languages.
   
   It’s been a good day all round. The film received very positive comments from Rut Gomez Sobrino, Head of the Audiovisual Department, at UNESCO’s Audiovisual E-platform. Their remit is to promote culturally diverse audiovisual content. I’m sending over a DVD and hope for the best.

10. 3 years ago 

    The Foundation of Endangered Languages

    Let me just start off by giving a big thank you to Christopher Moseley at The Foundation for Endangered Languages who is doing a piece on the film in their newsletter which comes out in December.
    
    One of the things I would like the film to do is to raise awareness for endangered languages. Film is an excellent medium for this. Over the coming months I’m going to try to promote it using a variety of methods. I’ll be writing about them on this site and letting you know how I get on.
    
    Robyn Woolston, director extraordinare, has put up a few versions. You can find the film on http://www.vimeo.com/user2326028%20and%20robynwoolston.com
    Stay Tuned!!

11. 3 years ago 
12. 3 years ago 
    "Sometimes I dream in many languages at once"

Immersion is a short film about endangered languages. I first heard the phrase a long time ago while reading an article about a philanthropist whose work involved publicising the cause. It was one of several documentary subject ideas I researched while on a Short Film Production course at WFA in Manchester. I finally had the opportunity to film it as a finalist Screenwriter for First Take in Liverpool where I worked with a wonderful Director, Robyn Woolston. It was screened in Blackpool earlier this year.

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