The Linguists (2008)

dir. Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller, Jeremy Newberger

The Linguists investigates the loss of languages of the world as the last speakers die off without young practitioners to keep up the tradition. It is an important subject, greater than the loss of a way of speaking, but a way of thinking, as languages represent thought, not just communication. I couldn't help but think of the similar relationship to the loss of a medicine man (shaman, curandero) of an indigenous tribe of the Amazon rainforest, often pegged as the equivalent of a library burning to the ground, all the knowledge wrapped up in a way of thinking that doesn't exist in the same form elsewhere in the world.

As David and Greg travel to Siberia, they learn that not only is this loss of language about age and diminishing communities but also about racism, where a people, shunned by the greater society, quietly give up their private tradition in order to better fit. There, as well as in Bolivia and India, David and Greg nobly seek out resident experts in the language, stumbling along on a journey that can not always be wholly scientific, forced to deal with misleading information, confusing, previously undocumented languages, and strange rituals.

Unfortunately, our leaders are among the least socially adept people on the planet, lending an unintentional humor to the film, and nearly developing a subplot that explores the scientist as social misfit in an entirely social pursuit. And while there are entertaining and educational moments, it is hard to shake the feeling that a reasonably short article would convey the same information as effectively.