SB-issue59_digital

The Road to Patagonia
Each of these Zapatista rebels, Amazonian
shamans, and Mapuche leaders describe the harsh
consequences of today’s dominant systems, and
how their ancient lifestyles have conflicted with the
modern attitude that humans are separate from,
and even superior to, nature.
After stumbling into so many welcoming cultures,
all with their own words for things far beyond the
English language, we were curious how the pair
came to understand and empathise with the people
they interviewed on their trip.
Matty told me he didn’t understand everything
that was said, at least not until they translated the
footage later in the editing process.
“I speak reasonable Mentawai, fluent Indonesian,
and at the time pretty decent Spanish. Heather’s
Spanish was really good by the end of it. We both
made a big effort to learn the languages where we
could.
“There are definitely concepts in the film that don’t
translate well into English because our culture has
loaded them with connotations and denotations.
Words like ‘spirit’ and ‘ancestors’ suffer from this,
so it’s hard to translate some of the concepts from
the animistic people we met and spoke with.
“Very often, when you’ve developed rapport
with people and you sit them down in front of a
camera, they’ll open up deeper than they would
in conversation. It’s such a beautiful thing, that
offering of vulnerability.
#59 // smorgasboarder //
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