To cite this article: Holtzman, H., & King, G. (2026). A language not their own: transnational production in ‘foreign’ dialogue. Transnational Screens, 17(1), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1080/25785273.2026.2634419.
This article is the introduction to a special issue of Transnational Screens co-edited by Gemma King and Hannah Holtzman.
Cultural and linguistic border-crossings are at the heart of transnational filmmaking practice, and language barriers pose unique challenges and opportunities to these crossings. Media production in a language one does not speak or understand may raise questions of authenticity, exploitation, and misrepresentation, while also allowing filmmakers to reach wider audiences and prompting reflection on the instability of national borders in production contexts. The articles in this special issue include case studies and broader examinations of multilingual and translingual trends in contemporary screen media production. The screen texts studied include documentary, narrative feature films, and streaming series made using American and French Sign Languages (ASL, LSF), Danish, English, French, Greek, Japanese, Kurdish, Navajo, Polish, Sámi, and Swedish. While these screen texts developed in response to different incentives and their productions involved diverse practical and ethical considerations, they share fundamental similarities in the language barriers encountered during production and acts of translation, multilingualism, and creative collaboration involved in overcoming these barriers. Informed by insights from Deaf Criticism, biopolitics, cultural studies, and transnational film theory, these articles intervene in cultural studies discussions of nation, language, and identity and the evolving discourse around representation and authenticity in screen media.
