This paper is part of a larger project exploring the connections between audiovisual genres and translation modalities. Here I will examine a specific audiovisual genre: documentary film, and its diverse translation modalities, with a specific focus on voice-over and audio description, in order to see how events are constructed and described in these translation modalities.
Documentaries are an audiovisual genre which has recently risen both in popularity with audiences and in critical studies, to the extent that a new academic discipline “Documentary studies”, arose within Films Studies in the 1990s. This acknowledged the fictiveness of the genre and the construction of discourse, which are as present in documentaries as in fiction films.
Only recently have translation studies focused on documentaries and, more specifically, on their translation with the modality of voice-over (with contributions by Pilar Orero, Eliana Franco, and Anna Matamala). For example, Franco (2000) has shown that voice-over is a device which constructs, rather than reports, realities, and that access to authenticity in voice-over is a myth.
The feeling of authenticity in voice-over (as constructed as it may be) in part comes from the overlapping of sound-tracks, which allows for partial comparison of source- and target texts. Similarly, subtitles have also been considered “vulnerable translation” (Jorge Díaz-Cintas 2003). The coexistence of two linguistic codes has given rise to specific translation strategies: trying to preserve, as far as possible, all terms which may be recognized by target audiences in the target versions. This strategy is actually also used in voice-over translation, at the beginning and end of utterances, where comparison is easier.
Audio description (AD) might be considered as an extended voice-over, added to films for the benefit of the visually impaired. In contrast with voice-over translation and subtitles for general audiences, in audio description, as well as in subtitles for the deaf of hearing (SDH), overlapping of linguistic codes is not an issue, since AD and SDH specifically intend to compensate for lack of access to linguistic content. It is not surprising, therefore, that existing guidelines for AD and SDH insist on the need of describing, as "objectively" as possible, the events portrayed in films. However, current research on accessible translation has questioned the possibility of objective portrayal of events, for example in audio description.
Drawing on documentary studies, on guidelines for specific translation practices (with a closer look at voice-over and audiodescription guidelines: UNE 153020 and ITC Guidance On Standards for Audio Description), and actual instances of translated and accessible documentaries, this paper explores to what extent vraisemblance, authenticity or objectivity are essential in translated documentaries, and to what extent construction and interpretation are at stake.

References
Díaz-Cintas, Jorge (2003). Teoría y práctica de la subtitulación. Inglès-Español. Barcelona: Ariel.
Franco, E. (2000), “Revoicing the Alien in Documentaries. Cultural agency, norms and the translation of audiovisual reality.” Unpubl. Doct. Diss. K.U.Leuven.

Eva ESPASA is lecturer at the Universitat de Vic, where she teaches audio-visual translation and accessibility. She is co-ordinator of GRAVT, an interdisciplinary research group focusing on audio-visual translation and communication, at the University of Vic. Her publications focus on audio-visual translation (John Benjamins, 2004) stage translation (John Benjamins, 2005; St Jerome, 2000; Eumo, 2001), and translation training related to audio-visual translation and publicity (Octaedro, 2006; John Benjamins, 2005). She studied translation at Essex (U.K. 1989-1990) and at Leuven (Belgium, 1992).