{"id":615,"date":"2010-11-19T16:46:47","date_gmt":"2010-11-19T16:46:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/esperanto\/?p=615"},"modified":"2011-08-09T10:55:57","modified_gmt":"2011-08-09T10:55:57","slug":"interview-with-director-of-conlang-the-movie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/esperanto\/interview-with-director-of-conlang-the-movie\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with director of Conlang: The Movie"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Epic linguistic battle<\/p><\/div>\n

The director of<\/em> Conlang, Marta Masferrer<\/strong>, speaks about her latest film and the role Esperanto plays there!<\/em><\/p>\n

What’s the film about?<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>CONLANG tells the story of Carl Tedesco, a 26 year-old unemployed conlang enthusiast\u00a0who holds constructed language club meetings in the basement of his grandmother\u2019s\u00a0house. Even though Carl has no trouble creating a new language, he has a hard time\u00a0finding the right words to express his feelings to Libby, his secret crush.<\/p>\n

One day, Carl has a chance of becoming president of the Constructed Language Society,\u00a0a club of people joined by their passion for invented languages. Just as they are about to\u00a0give him the Presidential pin, Carl is challenged to the Presidency by his arch nemesis \u2013\u00a0Kip, who intends on making Esperanto the official language of the club. Through a series\u00a0of grueling linguistical challenges Carl must win to be able to have a place to share his\u00a0own invented language, USCANIV, and ultimately win Libby\u2019s affection.<\/p>\n

Who had the idea to make a film about constructed languages and why?<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>Baldvin Kari, the screenwriter, learned about the world of constructed languages\u00a0through Kari Emil Helgason, the creator of USCANIV. Fascinated by the subculture\u00a0of conlangers and the idea of trying to express your feelings to the one you love in an\u00a0invented language, Baldvin wrote the screenplay while pursuing his masters in Film\u00a0at Columbia University. It was there that we met. I fell in love with the unique world\u00a0Baldvin created in CONLANG, and pitched my vision for the film to him. With Baldvin\u00a0on board as Producer, the film was shot on location in New Jersey and premiered in\u00a0February of 2010 at the Boston Sci Fi Film Festival<\/em> garnering Honorable Mention.\u00a0Since then, it has shown at numerous film festival and conferences across the nation and\u00a0recently won Best Narrative Short Film<\/strong> at the Sidewalk Moving Image Film Festival<\/em> in\u00a0Birmingham, Alabama.<\/p>\n

What kind of role does Esperanto play in the film?<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>Every story needs an antagonist to oppose the protagonist and their struggle provides\u00a0the drama. In researching for the movie and talking to dedicated conlangers, Baldvin\u00a0learned that in some conlanging circles of the past, there had been a certain conflict\u00a0between two divisions of conlangers, those who created \u201cartlangs\u201d and those who\u00a0preferred \u201cauxlangs\u201d. Since Carl\u2019s conlang Uscaniv is clearly an artlang it seemed\u00a0appropriate for his rival to be the proponent of an auxiliary language. And furthermore,\u00a0since Carl\u2019s Uscaniv is in a certain sense a quite extreme example of an artlang, with an\u00a0entire conworld created around it with a rich history and a family of related languages,\u00a0we wanted to push the notion of auxiliary languages to its extreme as well. So in the case\u00a0of CONLANG, the antagonist takes the form of an Esperantist, Kip Lazar. But while\u00a0Kip claims to be an Esperantist, in reality he has very extreme and misguided notions\u00a0about the language and it becomes clear that he doesn\u2019t want it to be auxiliary at all,\u00a0but to actually replace all other languages, even natural languages! So he is an \u201cauxlang\u00a0extremist\u201d, with Esperanto as his language of choice, who has taken the philosophy of Esperanto as a universal second language and turned it on its head.<\/p>\n

Why should Esperanto speakers support it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>Even though in CONLANG the villain is a self-proclaimed Esperantist and a poor\u00a0representation of the true Esperanto philosophy of peace and understanding, it is\u00a0nevertheless a fun and interesting comedy about conlangs, and those are few and far\u00a0between. It was always our aim to make a movie from the perspective of and with the\u00a0support of the real conlanging community, and not to come off as outsiders poking fun\u00a0at other people\u2019s interests. The humor had to come from a genuine understanding of\u00a0conlanging and then pushing the boundaries of that reality to a certain heightened reality\u00a0for comedic effect. And so far we have enjoyed an incredible amount of support from\u00a0conlangers all around the world, and we hope that means we did something right. And\u00a0now that we have a version of the movie with Esperanto subtitles, we hope to be able\u00a0share our unique and quirky story with a universal audience.<\/p>\n

Is the film already ready? If yes, why does it now need support and\u00a0not when it was being made?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, the film was funded by the director and through donations from friends and\u00a0family. However, because the budget was very small, we were not able to get the all the\u00a0distribution rights to the music and are unable to show the film outside of film festival\u00a0screenings. In addition, the union actors worked under a special agreement that allows\u00a0us to show the film only at film festivals. I would need to pay their deferred rates before\u00a0officially distributing the film. In addition, we need to hire a Graphic Designer to do the\u00a0poster and DVD cover and then pay all the fees to actually make the DVD. It really adds\u00a0up!<\/p>\n

What is Kickstarter.com?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kickstarter is a unique way to fund creative projects. \u201cKickstarter is powered by a unique\u00a0all-or-nothing funding method where projects must be fully-funded or no money changes\u00a0hands.\u201d The benefits of this is three-fold.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. It is less risk for everyone. Meaning because we need $2800, if we only raise\u00a0$2000 then we won\u2019t go through with getting the distribution rights and paying\u00a0for all the DVD duplication expenses because we won\u2019t have enough money to do\u00a0it all so it really is all-or-nothing!<\/li>\n
  2. It allows me to see if there is indeed enough interest in the film to make sure it is\u00a0distributed.<\/li>\n
  3. It motivates people to help spread the word if they really do want the project to\u00a0come to life!<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    This article was originally published in Esperanto translation on Libera Folio<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

    You can financially support this project at\u00a0Kickstarter.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

    The director of Conlang, Marta Masferrer, speaks about her latest film and the role Esperanto plays there! What’s the film about? CONLANG tells the story of Carl Tedesco, a 26 year-old unemployed conlang enthusiast\u00a0who holds constructed language club meetings in the basement of his grandmother\u2019s\u00a0house. Even though Carl has no trouble creating a new language…<\/p>\n

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