What Did He Say...?

… because we didn’t know. We really didn’t. It was all in Italian, it was fast, and it was an hour-long interview.

Editing a documentary film project in a language you don’t speak is pretty ambitious. Even more insane is to self-fund that project and to travel to a foreign country to complete that documentary… in the language you don’t speak. As one dear filmmaking friend of mine expressed it more succinctly, it’s “bloody insane.”


There were afternoons of filming interviews where the enthusiasm of our Italian crew was matched only by the bewilderment of the directors. Krista and I observed the Italians around us wiping tears from their eyes and heard their whispers of “que bello,” as we chased our translators with the question, “What? What did he say?!?!”

We knew, in our hearts, the gist of what was said, and we have found that we understand a lot more Italian than we thought we did. But the precise statements and the beauty of the expressions, often in metaphor, have just been revealed fully during this week’s sixty hours of subtitling every word, every sentence, every emotion expressed by our interview subjects.

It’s a beautiful thing, to really hear, see, and feel everything these amazing people have to say. Every morning last week, I awoke with an eagerness to spend more time with them, to really engage with their thoughts and ideas on the challenges they are facing in the Cinque Terre.

And now we can’t wait to share those thoughts and feelings with all of you. They’re coming, soon, and we will make it our mission for you to know exactly what each one of them said. The messages are all too important.

Sharon