A very long list of linguistics movies, documentaries, and TV show episodes

Looking for linguistics and language-related films to watch? Mary Ann Walter, a linguist who runs a linguistics film series at Middle East Technical University, Northern Cyprus, has kindly forwarded her very extensive list of linguistically-relevant movies, documentaries, and episodes of TV shows, and given me permission to post it.

I have only watched some of these movies and have only very lightly edited Mary Ann’s notes, so I cannot vouch for all of them, but I hope this list is helpful to people! If you know of any linguistically-relevant films that we’ve somehow missed, do add them in the comments. Asterisks indicate ones that are available on youtube.

Sci-fi/speculative

Arrival, 2016



Star Trek Darmok episode, 1991.



Pontypool. 2008. Horror. In a Canadian town, the English language somehow gets infected and makes them zombies.

The Falls. 1980. Mock documentary about something which killed many and left others with strange symptoms, including suddenly speaking new languages.



*Het Dak van de Walvis (On Top of the Whale) 1982 Raoul Ruiz. Parody of much of western academia. A group of field linguists set out to study an exotic language which consists only of one single word, which therefore means everything. Very strange, not a crowdpleaser.

Being John Malkovich. Also features a single word language.

English/Regional

*Do you speak American (3 episodes, each 1 hour).



*Talking Canadian (43 minutes). Difference between Canadian and US English.



Road Scholar (1993) directed by Roger Weisberg. US Poet and NPR commentator takes a road trip across the US shortly after getting his driver’s license after being a pedestrian for twenty years. Language and region are foregrounded. Also features some American language and culture.

American Tongues, 1987.



*The Story of English (10 episodes, each 1 hour).



*The Adventure of English (2003, BBC, 8 episodes, each 1 hour).



Trainspotting. For Scottish English.

Riff Raff (1991) directed by Ken Loach. UK. This film about a group of construction workers features working class dialects. What was significant about the film is that it had English language subtitles for English speaking audiences.



Inferiority

English Vinglish.



*My Fair Lady. 1964.



*Pygmalion. 1938.



Pygmalion 1983, starring Peter O’Toole.



Singing in the Rain. 1952.



Indigenous and Language Endangerment

*Linguistics and Human Rights. 1 hour. With Michel de Graff.



*Why should we protect endangered languages? Nicholas Ostler. 47 min.



Our spirits don’t speak English. (Native boarding schools in the U.S.)



The Linguists. (Gregory Anderson and K. David Harrison).



Vanishing Voices. PBS documentary.



Language Matters. 2015. Also PBS.



*We still live here. PBS on Wampanoag. 2011.



In languages we live. 2005. Danish and English.



Finding our talk. 2001. Canadian series on their Indigenous languages, experiences and revitalization efforts. 26 half-hour episodes.



Ga-du-gi. 2005. On Cherokee.



*The Hawaiian language shall live. 1997. 28 min.



More than words. 1996. Eyak Alaskan lang. 50 min.



Huchoosedah: traditions of the heart. 1995. 60 min. Lushootseed.



Transitions: destruction of a mother tongue. 1991. Blackfoot, 30 min.



Ultima palabra/last word, 2003. Mexico.



*Son sesler/last voices 1987. On Ubykh, in Turkish, 27 min.



*Rising Voices: Revitalizing the Lakota Language. 1 hour.



*Where the Spirit Lives, 1989. On Canadian residential schools of 1930s.

Ten canoes. 2006. Aboriginal elder tells story on a hunt.

Yolngu boy. 2001. Three Aboriginal adolescents set off for advice on court case from elder.

Rabbitproof fence. 2002. 3 Aboriginal girls taken from home to be maids, try to return.

‘Black and White’, 2002, a 'based on a true story’ Australian film featuring a storyline where the defence argues that a 'confession’ presented to the court in Standard Australian English shouldn’t be admitted as it was highly unlikely that this was an accurate representation of what the Aboriginal defendant could have produced. It even features the linguist Strehlow (big name in early Australian linguistics, and anthropology) as an expert witness.

Nirgendwo in Afrika (Nowhere in Africa). It has nice illustrations of bilingualism/multilingualism, code-switching, and child L2 acquisition. Jewish family moves to Africa in 1930s.

Nigerian pidgin opera. 1 hour long. Can watch it streaming from the internet, but no subtitles, not possible to follow words.

Windtalkers 2002 John Woo. Navajo code talkers in WW2.

Picture Bride. 1994. Hawaiian Pidgin English.

*Black Robe. 1991. Algonquian language in the 17th/18th century.

The Harder they Come. 1973. director: Perry Henzell. Lots of Jamaican creole.

*Stepping Razor Red X. 1992. director: Nicholas Campbell. Documentary with Jamaican Creole.

*Life and Debt in Jamaica.

Feral languages, Acquisition



Dogtooth 2009. Greek film about children are kept isolated by their parents, lots of violence and sexual abuse, not appropriate for most audiences.



*The enigma of Kaspar Hauser. Herzog, 1974. (On youtube but only in German, no subtitles).



Nell. 1994. Another feral child movie, starring Jodie Foster.



*The wild child (l’enfant sauvage) Truffaut, 1969.



*Secret of the wild child. Nova 1994.



The human language series, 1995, three episodes.



Mockingbird Don’t Sing. 2001. Also on Genie, just with names changed.



Animal communication

*Project Nim. 2011. On the chimp/language attempt.



The Jennie Project 2001 Gary Nadeau. Two anthropologists adopt a chimp, raise it with their own children, and teach it American Sign Language. Can rent streaming from Amazon but on own laptop ($3)

*A conversation with koko the gorilla. PBS doc. 1 hr. 1999.



Koko: A talking gorilla. 1978. Documentary.



Koko: The gorilla who talks (to people). 2016 BBC/PBS 1 hr.



*Kanzi: An Ape of Genius. 1993. In 4 parts on yt, total 1 hr.



Kanzi: Communicating apes. 13 min clip on yt of Natl Geographic show.



Human Ape. 2008. National Geographic 2 hour program. More general than just language, but includes it, as well as Kanzi. On yt but in 10 parts of 10 min each.



*Sue Savage-Rumbaugh 20 min TED talk on bonobos. (not only language).



*First Signs of Washoe. Nova season 1 ep 10. On yt in 2 parts. Total 1 hr.



Dolphins. 2000 imax movie. 40 min.



*The Girl who talked to dolphins. 2014. BBC, 1 hour. She lived with it and spoke English. Can supplement with something short like those below.



*Dolphins: Even smarter than you thought. 2015 Natl Geo, 16 min only, but shows interactive chat tech.



Inside the animal mind, BBC 2014, secrets of the social world, 20 min segment on dolphins. V. good.



*Nova science now: How smart are dolphins. 2014. 11 min, Neil deGrasse Tyson.



Denise Herzing TED talk, could we speak the language of dolphins.



*In the wild with Robin Williams: Dolphins. 1994. 1 hour national geographic episode. Includes Akeakamai, the dolphin who learned to follow gestural syntax.



*BBC wildlife on one, dolphins: deep thinkers, 2003, ½ hour episode.



Deafness and Sign Language

*Sound and Fury, 2000. 80 min. Family debate over cochlear implant.



*Sound and Fury: 6 years later.



*The Heather World, TEDx talk, 13 min, by child from Sound and Fury



*TED talk by Rachel Kolb, 16 min, navigating deafness in a hearing world.



*Keith Nolan, TED, Deaf in the military.



*Life and Deaf, 2016, BBC documentary, one hour.



*For a Deaf Son, 2013 PBS doc, one hour.



*Bridge to Silence, 1989, a woman rejoins theater of the Deaf after an accident and quarrels with her mother.



*Through Deaf Eyes. NEH documentary, 2 hours.



Speechless. 2014. Documentary about aphasia.



*The Miracle Worker. 1962. Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan. Also 1979 and 2000 versions.



*Black (2005) Hindi movie, woman who can’t hear, see or talk. Inspired by Keller. Full 2 hrs. Can be watched online: http://www.hindilinks4u.to/2007/06/black-2005.html

Disordered speech

Help me to speak. Stuttering.

The King’s speech. Stuttering too, early speech therapy, Colin Firth.

Still Alice. 2014. Linguistics professor with early onset Alzheimer’s, lexical loss. Julianne Moore.



The King’s speech. Stuttering too, early speech therapy, Colin Firth. Still Alice. 2014. Linguistics professor with early onset Alzheimer’s, lexical loss. Julianne Moore. Speechless. 2016. Television show about a cerebral palsy kid (and his family) who can’t speak. Comedy.



The Sullivanish teacher ends up w/Alzheimer’s himself, incl speech probs.



2013 Turkish remake! Benim Dunyam.



Behind the Lines/Regeneration, 1997, about PTSD-related elective mutism. (WWI poets)



Regarding Henry, 1991. Some speech pathology after brain injury (gunshot).



Rocket science, 2007. High school stutterer joins debate team. Coming-of-age, kind of inappropriate.



*Open Door: Aphasia, interviews w/NZ patients, 30 min.



*Inside Aphasia, 3 parts, 20 min. Both kind of boring.



Other