America’s Musical Journey
America’s Musical Journey: American music comes to Paris
On the 29th and 30th May American musical culture was celebrated at Parc de La Villette’s famous cinema, La Géode. It hosted MacGillvray Freeman’s latest creation, America’s Musical Journey. Atenao was on hand with three of its interpreters.
Narrated by Aloe Blacc, the documentary tells the story of the sounds from all over the world that came to shape America’s musical identity, such as jazz, blues, zydeco and country music. It also touches on the musical heritage and creative freedom of the nation. Atenao accompanied the film team through their round of interviews and the premiere screening to help promote the project.
The agency’s interpreting service ensured a great relationship between the English-speaking film team and the French listeners during their four scheduled interviews. What set this task apart was the amount of improvisation. Despite their thorough knowledge of the film and Freeman’s previous works, the speakers rarely stuck to the script. As a result it was more about interpreting their feelings, their spontaneous emotions.
The interpreters shone all the more at the film launch when faced with the added challenge of translating the director’s speech, for which he had not prepared notes. All in all an unusual and rhythmic project full of superb performances and interesting encounters.
Project category: Liaison interpreting
Language combination: French <> English
Resources: 3 interpreters
Equipment: No equipment, face-to-face
By Cara Dobinson