Alistair Tremps

About

My work has taken me through open-source intelligence, documentary film, literary translation, maritime journalism, AI training, and, earlier on, international commodities. The common thread is interpretation: entering complex worlds, understanding how they work, and explaining them clearly, accurately, and with context.

The subject matter has varied, sometimes more than was strictly necessary. The underlying job has not.

Research & Analysis

For more than twenty years I worked in open-source intelligence for FBIS, OSC, and OSE, producing daily reporting on political, economic, and media developments across Latin America. The work required speed, judgment, factual discipline, and a steady ability to separate signal from noise in fast-moving information environments.

More recently, that same skill set has carried over into AI training and editorial work: evaluating nuance, identifying weak reasoning, tightening language, and improving the accuracy and usefulness of complex written material.

Film & Media

I co-produced and researched Perdida, a feature documentary on the history of Mexican cinema. Because the film set out to cover roughly a century of the industry, the work involved years of archival research, interviews, and ongoing discussion of production, distribution, exhibition, and the evolution of film culture in Mexico.

That work continued beyond the film itself through festival attendance, industry contacts, and long-term engagement with cinema exhibition and preservation. I have also worked in subtitling and postproduction through AUDIOVISUAL POP, collaborating on more than 120 films with institutions including UCLA Film & Television Archive and IMCINE.

Selected links: Perdida trailer | Perdida on IMDb | The Architecture of Sound (Galerie)

Maritime

I currently edit and write for BoatTEST.com, working on daily newsletter and editorial content for a large boating readership. The job combines factual precision, quick turnaround, technical comprehension, and a healthy resistance to puffery.

My connection to the maritime world is not only editorial. It also includes offshore and coastal sailing experience, work in liveaboard diving operations, and a long-standing interest in maritime history and culture.

Translation

I have translated roughly a dozen books, including an extended maritime history collection, along with a wide range of nonfiction, film-related, and commercial material. Translation, at least the useful kind, is less about substitution than about tone, structure, and fidelity to how a text actually thinks.

Alongside book translation, I have spent years working in subtitling and linguistic adaptation, where precision, rhythm, and cultural context matter just as much as literal meaning.