PBS Broadcast Premiere of Language Matters with Bob Holman
Please check your local listings for the January 2015 PBS premiere of Language Matters with Bob Holman, a film by David Grubin. This two-hour documentary asks: What do we lose when a language dies? What does it take to save a language?
Written, produced, and directed by award-winning filmmaker David Grubin and hosted by poet Bob Holman, the program travels to a remote island off the coast of Australia where 400 Aboriginal people speak 10 different languages, all at risk; to Wales, where Welsh, once in danger, is today making a comeback; and to Hawaiʻi, where Hawaiians are fighting to save their language. Grubin says: "Most people in the world speak more than one language-monolingualism is a recent phenomenon. We're really celebrating diversity, looking at the vast domains of creativity, knowledge and thought encoded in language and what is lost when a language disappears."
Throughout January, screenings and performances followed by a Q&A will take place at several locations across the U.S. For more information, visit languagemattersfilm.com/events.
Language Matters received R&D, Production, and Completion funds from PIC's Media Fund.
Major funding for Language Matters with Bob Holman was provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities with additional funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, the National Endowment for the Arts, and philanthropic individuals.
For further information about the program, visit languagemattersfilm.com.