Developing flexibility to meet the challenges of interpreting in film festivals

The focus of this chapter is on an under-investigated setting of professional interpreting practice, namely Film Festival Interpreting, which is subsumed here under the wider field of “broadcast interpreting” on three counts: the multiplicity of communication levels; the interpreters’ professional exposure; and reference to an “ethics of entertainment”. In line with the rationale of the present volume, the suggested teaching approach addresses only those interpreting tasks that are brought together by the dialogic format of face-to-face spontaneous interaction, involving the use of the short consecutive mode. More specifically, the chapter deals with on-stage talk between the host and the festival’s special guests introducing gala screenings and the awarding of prizes, and both on-air and offair one-to-one press interviews with actors, directors, or jury members. Given the different expectations, constraints, and requirements characterizing these settings, students are taught to develop the ability to select, autonomously and in full awareness of the specific “environmental conditions”, the interpreting behaviour which is best suited to the unfolding of any given exchange. This flexibility is achieved through a progression of learning activities going from a theoretical discussion of context-specific interactional features, to the analysis of video-recorded authentic data, to role-play practice.