As part of The Guide’s prerelease in Ternopil, the city saw Ukraine’s first full-fledged film showing for the visually-impaired audience. The filmmakers prepared a special audio commentary, describing the events on the screen and translated to the viewer through a special headset.
The Guide’s director Oles Sanin is holding the prerelease tour in 19 cities of Ukraine. Every city will get one free film showing for the visually impaired, and the organizers want cinemas to provide cut-price tickets for visually impaired viewers starting on November 12.
“Ukraine has only one NGO, located in Lviv, which has experience in voicing cartoons for the visually impaired. We turned for help in writing the text to them, in particular to Oksana Potymko and actress Oleksandra Bonkovska. In writing the text of our audio commentary, they were joined by the film’s screenwriter Oleksandr Irvanets, for the text had to be a very special one, because we had to take into account all peculiarities of the visually impaired person’s perception, like words they know, which intonations should be used, what syllables stressed. Of course, we also consulted with the visually impaired themselves,” we were told by Sashko Chubko, assistant producer of the film company which made The Guide with support of the State Cinema Agency of Ukraine.
The next stage of the project was overcoming the technical issues. “From a technical standpoint, no cinema in Ukraine knows how to do it. We found an interesting and affordable option as we connected the MP3 player to the radio guide, which is used by museums and bus tours, and so were able to broadcast this,” Sashko explains. Every visually impaired viewer receives a radio set with headphones, while an MP3 player broadcasts audio commentary, which is activated simultaneously with the beginning of the film.
The first showing, held in Ternopil, was successful. According to the director of Ternopil Special School for the Blind and Visually Impaired Hanna Bohatyriova, it brought together about 50 blind people. “The film had everyone amazed and touched! It brought together the visually impaired of all ages, from schoolchildren who are now studying history to young people, to older people who experienced that history first-hand. We saw generations becoming reunited.”
“Film showings are not carried out specifically for the visually impaired. They are intended for everyone, including the visually impaired, so that they are integrated into the wider society. After the start of our project, we have grown more and more convinced of its necessity. Following the media’s attention, we got calls from the visually impaired residents of the city of Oleksandria, Kirovohrad oblast. They said they were taking the train tickets in order to get to watch the movie,” Chubko said.
