Davina Mattox Translates for Film
Garland Waller, a professor in BU’s Department of Film & Television and an award-winning filmmaker, took on a project close to her heart for her most recent project – a documentary of her father’s time in the Army during World War II. The documentary focusses on her father’s experience after the ship ferrying he and his comrades across the English Chanel was sunk by german submarines. Upon reaching shore, her father and his fellows took refuge in a ransacked chateau. Waller wanted to find the chateau, but the only clue she had was an old photo her father had found on the grounds, with handwriting in French on the back – and that led her to ask for help from the Romance Studies Department.
Davina Mattox, Senior Lecturer in French, translated the writing. It didn’t give the address, but it did give enough information that – with a little more sleuthing – Waller was able to track down the chateau. This enabled Waller to take her father to France and meet the children of the family that had owned the chateau during World War II.
The film was shown as part of COM’s Cinemathéque series. You can read the full story at BU Today.