How do we connect to our culture when a language has been lost? What are our barriers when the mother tongue isn’t as fluent as we want?
'Trippin Over My Tongue' is a series of films curated by the T A P E Collective and the Roots Resistance, exploring the themes of identity and heritage, othering, belonging and the trouble of melting pots. Whether it’s learning or losing a language, the programme looks at the barriers raised when the mother tongue isn’t as fluent as we want, or the words simply slip away. How do we connect to our culture when a language has been lost, and who do we turn to to serve as translators or teachers?
Cost: £8 Standard / £5 Student
Full Programme:
Taarof: A Verbal Dance
A young woman attends the funeral of her estranged father and trips on the customs and traditional ideals of what it is to be an Iranian woman. UK 2018 Dir Alannah Olivia 17 min
On The Threshold Of Liberty
An examination of a breakdown on one’s own language. It is a record of a personal struggle in trying to construct meaning as an outsider in foreign culture. Finland 1992 Heidi Tikka 12 min
Sorry, My Somali is not Very Good
A young Somali woman has trouble with her mother tongue and gets the encouragement she needs on a phone call with her father. UK 2020 Warda Mohamed 2 min
Mother’s Apricot Compote
A fragmentary narrative of two women whose lives are distant from each other yet hold traces of one another. This film conjures the ghosts that hover over the day to day lives of these two women; a rumination on the experience of the immigrant. UK 2020 Nia Fekri 23 min
Without Warning
Without Warning is about a girl who struggles to understand her heritage and identity as a sperm donor baby that grew up not looking like her parents. In an attempt to get to the bottom of ‘where she’s really from’, Ria approaches her Pakistani sperm donor father and hopes to learn more about her heritage through him. UK 2020 Emily Macrander 7 min
I Bit My Tongue
Shot in the summer of 2018 and fascinating in terms of its ethnography and cinematography, the filmmaker explores her dual cultural heritage and, in particular, the loss of a tool as underlying as language itself. Growing up in France in the 90s with a father who never spoke to her in Algerian meant the director’s link to her roots was broken, all the more considering language’s fundamental role as a way of bringing people together. France 2020 Dir Nina Khada 25 min
Accessibility Statement:
HEARING LOOPS: Induction loops are in place
SEATING: Studio 74 has raked seating which has steps on either side. The seats have arms. Seat Dimensions; Seat: 17.5" Wide, 18.5" Long (Depth), Back: 19" Wide, 22" Long (Height). If you are a wheelchair user we have removable seats or appropriate spaces available to accommodate this.
PARKING: There is one accessible parking space for Blue Badge Holders. To reserve this for your visit, please call our box office team on 01392 667080 who will provide you with a parking permit upon arrival.
TOILETS: Level access to accessible toilets is available on all floors. We have gender neutral toilets available in Studio 74 and on the first floor.
GUIDE DOGS: Guide / Hearing / Assistance Dogs are welcome. If you wish to take your dog into the performance, please let us know when booking your ticket so that we can arrange an adjacent seat.
COMPANION TICKETS: Patrons with disabilities may also bring a companion free of charge to all Exeter Phoenix promoted events, and most externally promoted events taking place in the venue. Please call 01392 667080 or email our box office team to organise this.
SUBTITLES: Subtitles available