Join us at the Glasgow Film Theatre for a screening of Surviving Translation (dir. Ling Lee) and a panel discussion on the topic of mistranslation – featuring the director, film contributors, and chaired by filmmaker Mariana Duarte Oliveira. After the event, there will be networking drinks nearby.

This event is funded by the RKEI by the Edinburgh College of Art and kindly supported by GRAMNet (Glasgow Refugee, Asylum and Migration Network).

There is a sliding scale payment option. For anyone who cannot afford it please email ling.lee@ed.ac.uk for a free ticket.

About the film

If our words are mistranslated - our truth is not told.

Rejeen Musa was working as a subtitler on 'Surviving Translation' when the words she was translating began to unlock painful memories from her own past. As a female Kurdish migrant and a translator, Rejeen became the lens through which the film explores the trauma and life-altering consequences of mistranslation. In addition to Rejeen, the film captures testimonies from women who fled their homelands in the hope of building a new life in the UK. They speak candidly of the dangers and gender-based violence they suffered in their past and the arduous journeys they undertook to escape. They explain that – even after arriving in the UK – they need to communicate via an interpreter to secure medical care and apply for asylum; a process which causes them to relive past traumas and recurring unequal power dynamics. With their futures held in the balance – they must speak via a complete stranger who may or may not have their best interests at heart. To further illuminate this largely unexamined subject, the film also presents testimonies from interpreters, subtitlers and translators who describe the – sometimes harrowing – challenges that they themselves face. Raw testimony, poetic imagery, and academic research coalesce in this unique meditation on translation, isolation, and the meaning of 'home'.

Director: Ling Lee Based on Research by Charlotte Bosseaux

Producers: Ling Lee & Charlotte Bosseaux http://www.lingleefilms.com Surviving Translation © University of Edinburgh, 2023 Funded by an AHRC Research, Development and Engagement Fellowship (Grant number: AH/W000199/1)

About GRAMNet: Glasgow Refugee, Asylum and Migration Network (GRAMNet) aims to bring together researchers and practitioners, NGOs and policy makers working with migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in Scotland. The network conducts research and qualitative evaluation on migration, refugees and the asylum process, and consults on migration-related policy in the UK and internationally. GRAMNet is currently funded by The University of Glasgow, whose academic community has a wide range of expertise in relation to these areas.

All proceeds from these ticket sales will go to Saheliya without whose support we would have not been to able make the film.

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Surviving Translation: Refugee Festival Scotland Screening + Discussion