Film, audiovisual fiction and linguistic diversity

When assessing the films that were candidates for the Best International Feature Film, the unimpeachable system of the Oscars rejected the film chosen by Portugal because most of the dialogue was in English. It had to be quickly replaced, and a gem was chosen: a film spoken in Cape Verdean crioulo, Vitalina Varela (2020) by Pedro Costa, which premiered in cinemas with subtitles in Galician and Catalan. This is the perfect historical irony of the subaltern language rising above the former colonising language while also representing it. After all, languages are not passive bystanders in the geopolitics within which they are embedded.

Cinema in minority languages in Spain has remained invisible due to the difficulties entailed in circulating small films and the need to dub them in order for their inclusion in the Spanish market, where the subtitled original version (SOV) is a minority option. The presence of what we call flagship films, which have won awards at international festivals and exhibited in their original language, contributes to bringing these films some visibility. In this essay, we analyse three cases —Pa negre (2010), Handia (2017) and O que arde (2019)—and the audiovisual policies that made it possible to produce them and give them visibility in festivals and film listings. 

One of the hypotheses on which this article is based is that the normalisation of subtitling in the audiovisual field, particularly in non-hegemonic languages, contributes to facilitating and consolidating dialogued communication and intercultural acceptance in instances as diverse as the Catalonian, Galician, Basque and Sámi cases. Simultaneously, and as the Sámi case study towards the end of the chapter suggests, these mechanisms for inclusion and diversity can also have an adverse effect and further strengthen modes of exclusion and the hegemonic normality of dominant languages where, furthermore, power is wielded through the use of subtitling and linguistic policies in dominant languages (and not only English). 

In the audiovisual field, what impact do communicative uses have on languages and identities? This article offers an approach to the linguistic uses and attitudes of Galician youth in relation to the audiovisual sphere and ICTs. The text addresses the problems that arise in communities with minority languages and points out the possibility of creating decentralised communication spaces and horizontal networks that strengthen the use of their own languages.

In this day and age, the promotion of Galician as a minoritised language and the provision of equal access to audiovisual content for viewers with and without impairments should be compatible. Both are included within the fifteen inspiring principles of the Galician broadcaster CRTVG. However, when it comes to deciding if the errors made by speakers on TV must be corrected or reproduced in the subtitles, a conflict arises. If errors are corrected to promote good use of the language, viewers with hearing loss will be able to access the content, but they will be excluded from the fact that the speakers are making errors, which motivates this discussion in the first place. Drawing on the first model for the correction/reproduction of errors in Galician subtitling (Martínez Lorenzo 2021) and on a recent survey about this issue with hearing viewers (Suevos 2021), this article looks at the linguistic, social and political implications involved in the attempt to reconcile accessibility and standardisation in Galician subtitling.