iMovie cropping audio

Hi, I'm trying to transfer an old short film (from about 2000) from an old digital 8 camera, but when I transfer it to iMovie, it breaks it up into shots, and all the clips have the audio cut-off at the head, not much but enough to make the dialogue in comprehensible. I originally edited it on an ancient version of iMovie - the original is lost, but I transferred the completed/edited film back to the camera. It plays perfectly on the camera, but the overlayed audio gets cut up and pieces missing when I do the transfer to iMovie. Is there a reason this is happening and a way around it?