Every 14 days a language disappears. The Living Tongues Institute estimates that by 2100 more than 7,000 languages spoken on Earth will become extinct. When a language dies,the history of a culture vanishes - collective knowledge about traditions, ecosystems, religious beliefs.?

National Geographic’s Enduring Voices Project is identifying language “hot spots” - places where languages are in danger of becoming extinct, with the goal of documenting and preserving them. Central Siberia, the Northwest Pacific Plateau, Northern Australia and Siberia are among the areas that have the highest threat of language extinction.

In addition to identifying endangered languages, the project is embarking on a series of expeditions in part to determine how linguistic diversity is linked to biodiversity. According to the project: “Indigenous groups that have interacted closely with the natural world for thousands of years often have profound insights into local lands, plants, animals, and ecosystems-many still undocumented by science. Studying indigenous languages therefore benefits environmental understanding and conservation efforts.”

We at FringeHog like to think of ourselves as curators of edgy ideas. So I wish I could think of something profoundly futuristic to say about “Fast Film” - maybe something about how the collage of images is a metaphor for the transmogrification of 20th century culture, a statement about the rapidity of technological and social change refracted through the lens oftheartisticzeitgeist. But I can’t. Instead, I have to say that this extraordinary film is simply a wicked cool piece of visual poetry.

From director Virgil Widrich’s website: “In 14 minutes, “Fast Film” provides a tour de force through film history, from its silent beginnings to present-day Hollywood. The filmmakers printed out some 65,000 individual images from 300 films, folded them into paper objects, arranged them in complex tableaux, and then brought them to life with an animation camera.”

Mahalo to Ben Hammersley for the heads up.