Live dubbing helps keep Faroese language afloat

Young schoolchildren got the chance to see some fascinating cartoon characters come to life in Faroese yesterday.

Children from 1st-5th grade were invited to a special event at Tórshavn’s Nordic House where six voice actors delivered live Faroese dubbing of the English lines in the Oscar-nominated Wolfwalkers cartoon.

The event was organised by the Nordic House, the Faroese Film Institute and BUSTER Film Festival, the biggest film festival for children and teenagers in the Nordics.

”Minority languages are coming under threat by the large streaming services. Netflix, Apple and the others don’t care about these small languages. So we need to take action,” Mariella Harpelunde Jensen, of BUSTER film festival, said after the event.

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“Live dubbing is fun because the children see the voice actors delivering their lines in real time. Another benefit of doing it this way is that live dubbing is much cheaper than dubbing content for TV.”

Tina Wagner í Dali, who heads Filmshúsið, the Faroese Film Institute, wants to organise more of these events in the future.

“We have made a deal with BUSTER in which six movies are prepared for live dubbing, aimed at various age groups,” she said.

“The plan is to host these events in local cinemas, libraries and the Nordic House.”

Watch a short TV news feature about the event (in Faroese and Danish) here.

English version by prosa.fo.

More Faroese News in English.