Ling in Film
For several years, I've organized and hosted a weekly Linguistics Film Series on campus at METU-NCC.
Below is a thematic list of our films - mostly documentaries but not all. Short clips are not included - each is at least half an hour long.
Topics: General, Linguistic Variation, Acquisition and Disorders, Deafness and Sign Languages, Revitalization, Writing, Animal Communication
A helpful student has also created this list of our films on letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/berkunal/list/linguistics-language-related/
Click here for promotional slides that include more detail on each film. Happy watching!
General
The History of Swear Words (2021)
The Professor and the Madman (2019) (OED, lexicography)
Ball of Fire (1941) (slang, lexicography)
Dreaming of Words (2021) (India; lexicography)
The Whistlers / La Gomera (2019)
Sibel (2018) (whistled language; Turkish)
Les Nouveaux Siffleurs d'Aas / The New Whistlers of Aas (2019)
The Universal Language (2011)
Conlanging: The Art of Crafting Tongues (2017)
Tolkien (2019)
Criminal Minds: The Silencer (2012) (forensic linguistics)
Manhunt (2017) (forensic linguistics)
Black and White (2002) (forensic linguistics, Australia)
The Grammar of Happiness (2012)
Is the Man who is Tall Happy? (2013) (Chomsky)
Kanraxel: The Confluence of Agnack (2014)
Camouflage (1977) (Polish; linguistics summer school intrigue)
The Falls (1980)
Pontypool (2008)
Youth without Youth (2007)
Gavagai (2016)
Variation
Do I Sound Gay? (2014)
Accent Expert Gives a Tour of US Accents (2021)
Mountain Talk (2004)
Talking Black in America (2017)
Do You Speak American? (2005)
American Tongues (1988)
Talking Canadian
Sorry to Bother You (2018)
How to Break into the Elite (2018) (UK accentism)
Class Wars (BBC, ep 1 on accentism)
Picture Bride (1994) (fictional; Hawaii'an creole genesis)
English Vinglish (2012)
Bombay Calling (2006)
Stepping Razor: Red X (1993)
Life and Debt in Jamaica
The Story of English (1986)
Pygmalion (1938)
My Fair Lady (1964)
Singin' in the Rain (1952)
Acquisition and disorders
Born Talking (1990)
Why Do We Talk? (2009) (BBC)
The Secret Life of the Brain: The Child's Brain: Syllable from Sound (2002)
Babies: First Words (2019)
Please Teach Me English (2003) (Korean comedy)
English Vinglish (2012)
Mind your language! (1977) (UK comedy, L2 English classroom)
Crazy English (1999) (Chinese teacher of English)
Secret of the Wild Child (1994)
Is it real? Feral Children (National Geographic)
Wild Child: The Story of Feral Children (2002)
Nell (1994)
Mockingbird Don't Sing (2001) (fictionalized Genie)
The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974)
L'enfant Sauvage (1970)
Our Dyslexic Children (2020)
Journey into Dyslexia
Brain Man (2005)
Stammer School: Musharraf Finds his Voice (2013)
School for Stutterers (same film)
Rocket Science (2007) (stuttering, comedy)
The King's Speech (2010)
My Beautiful Broken Brain (aphasia)
The Possibilities are Endless (2014) (aphasia)
Speechless (2014) (aphasia documentary)
Speechless (2017-) (comedy program, cerebral palsy, augmented communication)
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007) (augmented communication)
My Left Foot (1989) (cerebral palsy, augmented communication)
My Child Won't Speak: Raising a child with selective mutism
My Child's Not Perfect: How do you help a child with selective mutism
Komi Can't Communicate (anime series about a girl with selective mutism)
Regeneration / Behind the Lines (1997) (WWI selective mutism)
Linguistics as a Window to Understanding the Brain (2012) (Pinker)
Poto and Cabengo (1980) (disordered/twin language)
Still Alice (2014)
The Miracle Worker (1962 and 2000)
Black (2005) (Hindi remake of Miracle Worker)
Benim Dunyam / My World (2013) (Turkish remake of Miracle Worker)
Deafness and sign languages
Silent Children, New Language (1997)
Voices from El Sayed (2008)
Life and Deaf (2016)
Through Deaf Eyes (2007)
Anthropology of the Dutch: Being Deaf in the Netherlands (2015)
The Sound Barrier (2015)
Sound and Fury (2000)
Louder than Words (2017)
Deaf Out Loud (2018)
For a Deaf Son (1994)
Signing Black in America (2020)
Extraordinary Teens: School of Life and Deaf (2017)
Deaf Jam (2011)
Ishaare: Gestures and Signs in Mumbai
A Silent Voice / Koe no Katachi (2017) (Japanese anime film)
Hear Me / Ting Shuo (2009) (Taiwanese romantic comedy)
Deaf U (2020) (reality show at Gallaudet)
Wonderstruck (2017)
Sign Gene (2017)
Sound of Metal (2019)
Coda (2021)
No Ordinary Hero / Superdeafy Movie
The Tribe (2014) (Ukrainian, violent)
And Your Name is Jonah (1979)
Sound Barrier (2005)
Revitalization
Dodawanisi / We Will speak (2023) (Cherokee)
Y Swn (2023) (Welsh)
We Still Live Here (2010)
Dah Dzahge Nodeside: We are speaking our language again (2016)
Living the Language (2014)
Dizhsa Nabani: Living Language (2018)
Not to Lose you my Language (1975) (Australian aboriginal languages)
You understand, don't you? (2015) (Australian aboriginal languages)
Goodbye to a Language? (2019)
Rising Voices (2014) (Lakota)
Saving the Yurok Language
Why Save a Language? (2006)
Voices on the Rise (2019)
Son Sesler (Ubykh; in Turkish)
Bir Ruya Gordum, Anlatsam da Anlamazsiniz / I had a dream, you wouldn't understand even if I told (2018) (Ubykh; in Turkish)
E Ola Ka Olelo Hawai'i; May the Hawaiian Language Live
Keep Talking (2018)
The Linguists (2008)
Our Spirits Don't Speak English (2008)
Unspoken: America's Native American Boarding Schools (2018)
Wawahte: Stories of Residential School Survivors (2016)
Where the Spirit Lives (1989)
Windtalkers (2002)
I Dream in Another Language (2017)
On Top of the Whale (1982) (parody)
Writing
Young Heroes: Louis Braille (1998)
Thoth's Pill: An Animated History of Writing (2015)
The Secret History of Writing (2020)
Designing a Lost Language for Heaven's Vault (2019)
Breaking the Maya Code (2008)
A Very English Genius (2002) (Linear B decipherment)
The King's Letters (2019) (Korean; creation of hangul)
The Social Life of Khipus (2014)
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (2011) (Chinese women writing system)
Hidden Relics: World's Most Unexplained (2021) (ep 1 on Voynich)
Animal Communication
The Girl who Talked to Dolphins (2014)
First Signs of Washoe (1974)
Kanzi: An Ape of Genius (1993)
Koko: A Talking Gorilla (1978)
Project Nim (2011)
Animals Like Us: Animal Language (2004-6)
My Wild Affair: The Ape Who Went to College
The Jennie Project (2001) (non-documentary)