Environmental documentaries play an important role in communicating climate change, yet the translations through which they reach international audiences remain underexplored. This study examines how the representation of truth in Before the Flood (2016) is reshaped in two Lithuanian voice-over translations: a professional translation (TT1) and an amateur translation (TT2). A comparison of professional and amateur translations of the same documentary within the same language pair provides a controlled basis for examining how different translation practices may shape the mediation of documentary truth claims. Representation of truth is operationalised through four dimensions: factual content, specialised climate-related terminology, emotional register, and markers of expert authority. A comparative, product-oriented mixed-methods analysis of 176 source-text segments combines qualitative analysis of translational shifts with quantitative comparison across the four categories. The findings show that TT1 preserves the factual content and specialised terminology more consistently than TT2 and retains more markers of expert authority. The emotional register presents a different pattern: both translations modify the same proportion of emotionally charged instances, predominantly reducing their intensity.
The findings demonstrate that the professional translation’s advantage is dimension-specific rather than absolute. Translation thus emerges as an active site of environmental discourse mediation through which the factual, terminological, affective, and epistemic resources constructing documentary truth claims may be reshaped.
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Filmography
DiCaprio, L. (Producer), & Stevens, F. (Director). (2016). Before the Flood [Motion picture]. National Geographic Documentary Films.
DiCaprio, L. (Producer), & Stevens, F. (Director). (2016). Prieš potvynį [Motion picture]. National Geographic Documentary Films. Amateur translation.
DiCaprio, L. (Producer), & Stevens, F. (Director). (2016). Prieš potvynį [Motion picture]. National Geographic Documentary Films. Professional translation by Mindaugas Lapinskas.
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