Press Conference: Haben Sie Verstanden?
by Becky Tan

Accredited journalists can walk right into the press conferences, sometimes four PCs a day. There, the director, producer, actors, etc., answer questions for 30 to 90 minutes. No matter if the film was in French or Russian or Chinese. You get head phones and talented simultaneous translators sitting in glass booths tell you what is being said. The good news is that anyone can watch a press conference as it happens or even months later. Go to www.berlinale.de. Click on English, then Press, then Press Conference, then on the right side click video streaming, then on the left side click video streaming Archive 2011. A list will pop up and you can click the press conference you wish. For a good test of how wonderful the translators are, try out Press Conference Award Winners, which was the last press conference of the season. Here simultaneous translators speak perfect English renditions of deep thoughts by the winners, who speak Hungarian, Farsi, German, Spanish and Korean. Don’t be disturbed if, at the beginning of the press conference, there is a lot of photography going on. Stick it out and the actual press conference will begin when the photographers disappear and the participants sit down at the long table.