''Language Matters with Bob Holman'' is a 2015 documentary that focuses upon the rapid extinction of many of planet Earth's human languages and the multifarious struggles and efforts to save and preserve them. Holman states that "There are between 6,000 and 7,000 languages spoken in the world today. Languages have always come and gone but what is happening today is "a global crisis of massive proportions "... The feature is directed by

David Grubin David Grubin (born 1944) is an American documentary filmmaker. Career Grubin is best known for producing television documentaries for PBS, notably ''American Experience'' and ''Healing And The Mind with Bill Moyers''. His work has won two Alfr ...

and narrated and hosted by Holman The film spans the globe to visit three geographic areas

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

(both out in the

Outback The Outback is a remote, vast, sparsely populated area of Australia. The Outback is more remote than the bush. While often envisaged as being arid, the Outback regions extend from the northern to southern Australian coastlines and encompass a n ...

of and in the

Goulburn Islands The Goulburn Islands are a group of small islands and islets in the Arafura Sea off the coast of Arnhem Land in Northern Territory of Australia. The largest islands are Weyirra (North Goulburn Island) and Warruwi (South Goulburn Island), where t ...

off of the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

and

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

or as the film's own website explains..."Language Matters was filmed around the world: on a remote island off the coast of Australia where 400 Aboriginal people speak 10 different languages, all at risk; in Wales, where Welsh, once in danger, is today making a comeback; and in Hawaii, where

Hawaiians Native Hawaiians (also known as Indigenous Hawaiians, Kānaka Maoli, Aboriginal Hawaiians, First Hawaiians, or simply Hawaiians) ( haw, kānaka, , , and ), are the indigenous ethnic group of Polynesian people of the Hawaiian Islands. Hawaii ...

are fighting to save their native tongue." The film was first broadcast on

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

in 2015 on the following dates; in New York City, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Washington, DC on January 25, 2015 then on January 27 in Columbus, Ohio, on January 29 in Chicago and Los Angeles, on February 5, Boston and finally on February 23, in Syracuse. Meanwhile, the film is being streamed on the Public Broadcasting Service's website www.PBS.ORG.

Critical reception

Levi Asher Levi Asher (or ''Marc Eliot Stein''; 18 November 1961 in Queens, New York) is a New York-based writer, blogger and web developer responsible for Literary Kicks, one of the earliest popular literary websites and now the oldest continuously-runni ...

in writing for the online journal, ''

Literary Kicks Literary Kicks is a website that functions as a digital library of poetry and prose, biography and cultural criticism chiefly focused on Beat Generation writers. Founded in 1994 by Levi Asher, the site has since expanded to cover a wider range of ...

'' says in reviewing the film that... "it is a delightful and captivating two-hour documentary". He later concludes his commentary on the piece by stating, "Language Matters appears to be a television documentary about remote cultures and faraway peoples. It turns out to be a show about us all".

The Best American Poetry ''The Best American Poetry'' series consists of annual poetry anthologies, each containing seventy-five poems. Background The series, begun by poet and editor David Lehman in 1988, has a different guest editor every year. Lehman, still the general ...

in reviewing the program on their blog states ...""Language Matters" is the first nationwide media recognition of the Language Crisis, which is not just about languages, but cultural diversity. It's about global homogenization, the Pringleization of society, about cultures being steamrolled under globalization"...

References

External links

* * ''Language Matters'' full movie Streamed on PBS.org

Documentary films about words and language 2015 films 2015 documentary films American documentary films Films directed by David Grubin Endangered languages projects 2010s American films {{documentary-tv-film-stub