Guerrilla Gardening: Seeds of Revolution was on La Matinale, a French morning show last Monday! We only have the sketchiest idea what they’re saying since we’re both terrible Canadians and neither of us are fluent in French. I assume the bits where she’s reading off paper are the interview questions they emailed me though. Who knows! I just get a kick out of hearing the name ‘General Bauhaus’ on TV. Go check it out and if you’re more fluent we’d love to find out what they’re saying.
This may actually be the second time we’ve been on TV in France, I had someone contact me for info last year, but never got a link to the show.
I’ve been doing a few interviews and the like in the last few months, here’s a quick roundup:
Torontoist – ‘Guerrilla Pixeling’
GOOD Magazine/Kill Screen – ‘Guerrilla Gardening for Gamers’
Guest Appearance on Level Fourtytwo‘s Talk is Cheap 4/12/10
UPDATE: Thanks to French game developer Shiftyweb (blog in French, game portfolio in English) there’s now a quick and dirty translation in the comments. Looks like the report was full of terrible puns and they misjudged Molly’s age by a good chunk. Still super cool to see the game in that context!
Hey, It’s very good for you !
I’m french so if you want I can translate the video for you (or just some pieces).
Hey Shiftyweb,
Thanks, that would be awesome! Whatever you’re up for translating would be great.
We’re particularly curious what the guy is saying at around 2:30 in.
I’ll do it in the evening
(7h43 PM here)
Cool thanks!
Here it is ! Sorry for the errors, I’ve did it really fast.
⁃ Blond hair girl : Now we are gonna talk about a video game which propose to save the planet by planting flowers.
] So, there are peoples who have strong believes in the power of flower. Let me show you these two photos, before and after. Then we will guess what happened. So it’s a dirty field and a clean field with some greasy plants.
⁃ Brown hair girl : It’s called the flower power Maitena (first name of the blond girl) !
⁃ Maitena : It’s beautiful.
⁃ Brown hair girl : Save the men with “geranium” (in french it’s a wordplay with the word “homes” = ” men”, geranium is a plant), Save your mother with some “primevert” (=flower, again a wordplay), Save aunty with gardenia (the same). [very bad word play not funny at all
⁃ The man : Well greasy ! [useless…]
⁃ Brown hair girl : Actually between these happened the “guerilla gardening”. It is a new movement which was born in the USA during the 60s which is expending to the whole world. It consists to plant flower in abandoned city’s fields to give a little hope. This “guerrilla gardening” thing is becoming so popular that the very first video game devoted to it is about to be launched. It is called “seeds of revolutions” [then she translates it in French], it has been developed by a Canadian video game studio and then the goal is to control a little girl called “Molly Greenthumb” [in the French version she translated the last name], she seems to be around 7. She is here on picture, oh she’s a little out of the frame. And Molly has to fight the horrible “General Bauhaus” who is a fascist dictator who wants to remove every green way of the city. Furthermore, we don’t know if He has banned the wearing of the “burqa” [big speak about that in France, it's a link the actuality], but he has banned all the plants and flower from the city. It’s very very sad [ironically]. So the goal of the game is set back the “green” in the city. Molly has to plant some little flowers everywhere. Let’s watch right now a short video of the game.
⁃ [a new man is sat at the table and he didn't finish his sentence after the video so I can't translate it :/ ]
⁃ Maitena : Wow it’s really nice !
⁃ Brown hair girl :There, there. So the game is over when you have succeed on creating a revolution by planting flower that are so beautiful that will make the people wants to be free.
⁃ Maitena : Leon. [give the voice to the first man]
⁃ Leon : Yeah, I wanted to say that offer flowers that you have make grow your self is the best way to didn’t get a rake [wordplay, it's the same than "to be rejected"].
⁃ Brown hair girl : Oh Lean …
⁃ Leon : I know I know.
⁃ Maitena : That’s a morning intervention which will …
⁃ The other men : … makes history !
⁃ Brown hair girl : Play to Guerrilla Gardening is the best way to do some gardening without get your hands dirty. This little game is still in development and will be soon released. Actually you can follow the development on the blog of the developers [she gave the address]. And there it is funny because you have the background of each character and some anecdotes about the development. To conclude, still about a video game but the anti-guerrilla gardening, it’s a little web browser game very funny which is called “money road” [www.ruedufric.com] and there the goal is to control a shark of the finance and build some buildings all around the world by coming on to a female banker, by giving hush money to a promoter and the mayor of a little town. “Money Road” is a very funny game you are gonna to see that. I don’t know if we displayed the screenshots. It’s developed [didn't finish his sentence because the other are laughing]. I tell you about it because … [the same] Here is the mayor …
⁃ Leon : It’s Robert Hue [a French political man]
⁃ Brown hair girl : It’s developed by …
⁃ Maitena : Unbelievable.
⁃ Brown hair girl : … a French developer of video game, a publisher of video game based in Nantes. The publisher is called “Beemoov” and they always make games which fit to the news. So there with the shark of the finance we understand immediately [link to the financial crisis]. Their next game, we will talk later about it, is called “Soccer Star” [Star du foot in french] where you will have to manage the career of a soccer player, you’ll have to make important choices by lead him to the training, or in night club or to the car seller.
⁃ Maitena : We can do anything on the web !
⁃ Leon : Have you seen that the sexy banker looks like Maitena [reference to the art work on the screen].
⁃ Brown hair girl : You are wrong she had pinky hair !
⁃ Maitena : I’ve been owned all this few days ! I don’t know you but I’m not sure that I will be able to come back tomorrow. It’s enough now !
Wow, awesome thanks a bunch. I threw an update at the top of telling people to check down here for the translation and linked your portfolio and blog. We both really appreciate the translation.
Awesome news Miguel!
ah ah you’re welcome
I’ve just read my previous comment and it’s full of errors :p
So yeah, it’s a dirty translation.
I’m glad that it helps you to understand the video.
Hi