DOCUMENTRY ABOUT NA'VI LANGUAGE SPEAKERS

[nube]

Greetings to everyone. I am a filmmaker looking to shoot a documentary about the individuals who dedicate themselves to studying and developing the Na'vi language. I am currently located in the New York City area. If there are any people interested in participating in the project, I would be honored to conduct an interview and film your methods of practice. I would also appreciate any assistance from people outside of the New York City area. Thanks to everyone for taking the time to read this.

[Tìtstewan]

Kaltxì ulte zola'eiu nìprrte'!

Dokumentary about speaker of Na'vi. interesting!

I would also appreciate any assistance from people outside of the New York City area.

Does this "work" also for some people outside of the US?

[`Eylan Ayfalulukanä]

I'm willing to help. And as a broadcast engineer, I can produce something in just about any format you would like it.

[archaic]

I advise a little healthy caution, no one here would like anyone to inadvertently be portrayed as a freak.
I may understand the back story to something, but insensitive editing can misrepresent.
It has happened in the past. More than once.

[nube]

Archaic,
I fully understand your concern, my intention is not to portray anyone in a "freakish" light. What I'm looking to do is document the development and usage of various fictional languages. I am looking for any linguists, groups or enthusiasts that would like to share their passion and knowledge of their language. This a project more about the language than it's community, and yes the community will be featured because they are hand-in-hand, it's not my aim to throw spotlight on any one particular person and label them.

As mentioned about one way I'm looking to tackle this project is from a linguistics point of view, and at some point (if possible) I would like to contact the linguistics instructors behind the creations of some of these (once originally) fictional languages.

I hope that helps clear the air a little bit, I know that the minute someone points a camera and turns on a light people get very uncomfortable. I know I do.

[archaic]

As honest as your intentions might be, you are not the only link in the chain. You may create a documentary that is fair, balanced and unbiased, but others may get involved and misuse the material.

The media has something of a checkered past when it comes to balancing honest portrayal versus ratings.

If I may I counter suggest something here, why not a look at the overlap between J.R.R.Tolkein's Elvish language and Welsh?
I am told by more than one Welsh speaker that the overlap is more than is generally acknowledged.

[Tirea Aean]

I see nothing wrong with having a documentary made about the Na'vi language and its evolution over time, with relevant volunteers being interviewed. I'll not tell documentary filmmakers to leave us alone. I want word to get out of the amazingness of the language for which this forum was founded.

EDIT: Even if news/media companies feel like being sacks and mining the documentary to fulfill twisted purposes. (Why not license the documentary in such a way that this cannot even legally happen without express permission?)

[Alyara Arati]

16 In Webster Groves was a 1966 award-winning documentary one-hour TV special produced by CBS News focusing on the experiences of adolescents growing up and living in Webster Groves, Missouri, United States.
Produced by Arthur Barron and narrated by Charles Kuralt, the program was inspired by a survey conducted by the University of Chicago. It showed the middle-American, middle-class town to be a superficially friendly, prosperous, progressive, religious, charitable, arts-and-education oriented bedroom community whose adolescent culture, with the complicity (and, by inference, example and encouragement) of the adult population, was in fact clique-ridden, status-oriented, hypercompetitive, hypocritical, prejudiced, and materialistic. In stark contrast to the popular view in the mid-1960s that young people were rebelling against the values of their parents, the program depicted the Webster Groves teenagers as unimaginative and conformist. One sixteen-year-old girl, for example, declares that her dream is to live in a house down the street from the one she lives in now. That interview, and others with a cross section of sixteen-year-olds in the community, including minorities and exchange students, and consensual filming of their normal activities, both in school and at recreation, provided the content of the program.
A 2006 retrospective article in the local newspaper Riverfront Times indicated that, after the documentary aired, many the town's citizens felt that their community had been unfairly portrayed. For example, when the documentary showed students running away from school in an apparent eagerness to leave, it was NOT mentioned that they were actually rushing out to see the CBS helicopter. Another time when the students were all portrayed as depressed, the real reason for that depression was not mentioned (the funeral of a popular student).

I'm from Webster Groves.  We have not forgotten this documentary.  It is still infamous in my local community, particularly for the funeral incident.  So I can totally understand Archaic's mistrust.  And considering that when once I attempted to speak Na'vi on a skype video chat I was so completely tongue tied that I couldn't even say, "Can you hear me?" I am probably not a good candidate for participation.  With that said, I wish for good things here, because essentially, that's all I can do.  I'm sure everyone will do their best to be cooperative and helpful if they choose to volunteer.