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Ciao Babylon

Kurt Reinhard, Christoph Schreiber

Ciao Babylon
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About

Ciao Babylon takes us to New York where Dan Kaufman is committed to preserving endangered languages. The film also follows Giancarlo Malchiodi from Brooklyn to the Swiss Alps on his way to rediscover his mother tongue Romanish, a language that may die out within a few decades. Experts believe that by the end of the century half of the 6,500 languages spoken today will have vanished; and with every language dies a unique way of perceiving the world. Ciao Babylon calls attention to this dramatic development.

In New York City roughly 800 languages are spoken, more than in any other city. In order to uncover these linguistic treasures and record the diverse range of idioms, linguist Dan Kaufman established the Endangered Language Alliance (ELA). Amalia Malchiodi is an ELA regular who records stories in an old Romontsch Sursilvan dialect. Her son Giancarlo spoke perfect Romansh as a boy, but later, as he says, decided out of youthful exuberance to only speak English. He now regrets that he is no longer proficient in the language of his forefathers. This is why he has started to relearn the language and eventually embarks on a trip with Amalia to Sagogn, his mother’s hometown. There they meet a Portuguese family whose children are growing up with the Romansh language, which they are learning with relative ease given its similarity to their mother tongue. As a result, the many Portuguese immigrants in Grisons are becoming the new hope for the preservation of Romansh in Switzerland.

Precisely these kinds of surprising, unpredictable twists in the evolution of languages are fascinating to Dan Kaufman. He says that no one can predict which languages will still be spoken in 200 years and which ones will only survive in the archives of the ELA.


Reviews

"One of the film’s strengths is its glimpse on historical language survival. Where the film shines, is in exploring the individual reactions to language death and those fighting to preserve language at individual and/or community levels." - Amanda Jo Melchor, Reference & Instruction Librarian, Texas A&M University, Kingsville

Subjects:

Regions:

Credits

Ciao Babylon


Protagonists 

Daniel Kaufman, Giancarlo Malchiodi, Amalia Malchiodi, Leobardo Ajtzalam, José Suàrez, Lisseth Morin, Gloria Angeles and many more.


Writers, Directors

Kurt Reinhard & Christoph Schreiber


Producer

Frank Matter, soap factory GmbH


SOAP FACTORY

Filmproduktion GmbH Basel


in co-production with

SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen

RTR Radiotelevisiun Svizra Rumantscha


Commissioning Editors

Denise Chervet

Urs Augstburger


Director of Photography

Steff Bossert


Sound

Olivier JeanRichard


Editing

Mirella Nüesch



Editing Supervision

Mirjam Krakenberger


Music

Peter Scherer


Communication and Sales

Loredana-Nastassja Fernández


Color Grading

Peter Guyer

Ueli Müller

RecTV, Bern



Sound Editing and Mix

Peter von Siebenthal, Projektstudio GmbH


Translations and Subtitles

Manuela Vonwiler


Titles

Angela Reinhard, nordföhn


Produced with the support of 

  • Teleproduktions-Fonds
  • Fachausschuss Audiovision und Multimedia der Kantone Basel-Stadt und Basel-Landschaft
  • Ernst Göhner Stiftung
  • Swisslos/Kulturförderung Solothurn SoKultur
  • Swisslos/Kulturförderung Kanton Graubünden
  • Succès Passage Antenne SRG SSR
  • Succès CinémaLia 
  • Rumantscha

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