Spanish cinema brought 705 films to the billboard in 2022, according to Cinematography Statistics, belonging to the Ministry of Culture and Sports, published this summer. Fiction is a recurring escape valve, but perhaps it is not the same for everyone, since last year the Spanish Center for Subtitling and Audio Description (CESyA) only registered 69 films accessible in the cinemas it monitors. People with disabilities face numerous barriers in the audiovisual world, as spectators and also as actors. The premiere this Thursday of The light you can’t see, a miniseries on the Netflix platform based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by author Anthony Doerr, brings visibility to the collective. Its protagonists are blind, like the Spanish actress Lola Robles, 54, invited on Monday to the premiere in Madrid, where he launched a protesting message: “I pay the entrance fee like anyone else, but I can’t enjoy it the same because they call me different.”
The main platforms for watching movies and series from home, such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, AppleTV+, Disney+, HBO Max and Movistar+, offer part of their content with accessible tools. Doctor and accessibility consultant Èlia Sala recognizes that, sometimes, some of these entertainment companies “include subtitles for hearing people, but they stay halfway because they focus on accessing a different language, when deaf people need them. “All the sound elements that appear on the scene are included in order to assimilate the entire message.”
The preview organized by Netflix in collaboration with the National Organization of the Spanish Blind (ONCE) included the cinema screening of the first chapter of the miniseries with subtitles, for the deaf, and audio description, for the blind, in Spanish. The objective was that spectators with disabilities could also enjoy it on equal terms. The rest of the invited people had a mask to achieve an immersive experience. Carlos Soroa, 32, also attended the event. He is the first deaf Spanish actor who worked for Netflix in the series Welcome to Eden. At his school they promoted the performing arts, but as she saw a difficult future in the audiovisual world, she trained in cooking. “I had an interpreter at the institute, but it didn’t cover the entire schedule,” she explained.
Training limitations can make the professional integration of actors difficult, although inclusion is becoming more present every day. The light you can’t see features Marie-Laure, a blind French girl, and her father, Daniel LeBlanc, who flee German-occupied Paris with a coveted diamond. They find refuge in St. Malo, where they settle with their uncle, who makes clandestine radio broadcasts as part of the resistance. The young woman will meet Werner, a man recruited by Hitler’s regime to track down illegal information, and they will end up sharing a secret bond. The blind actresses are Nell Sutton, who plays the protagonist as a child; and Aria Mia Loberti, when she was young, who had no previous experience in the audiovisual world: “I never allowed myself to dream of acting when I was little. You just get used to people telling you what is possible for you, and you accept it.”
Certain barriers still accompany Soroa in his current training as an actor. Therefore, he has reached an agreement with his center. They reduce the price of the course a little because they do not provide him with an interpreter, which means that he has to look for one and pay for it at his own expense. Robles also encountered difficulties in his academic period. At the age of 32 he lost his vision due to retinitis pigmentosa. Four years later he joined the theater group La Luciérnaga, belonging to ONCE. He confirmed his passion for cinema, but when he wanted to be a professional she was kicked out of three different schools. “They told me they didn’t have a class for blind people. I didn’t intend that, I just wanted to integrate,” he clarified. Thanks to his persistence, he studied drama. Among the characters he has represented, the politician and lawyer Clara Campoamor stands out in the feature film A vote to wake up.
Sala recognizes the difficulties that spectators with disabilities also encounter. For her, quality subtitling is essential and she believes that accessibility takes up a small part of the budget. The head of Cultural Promotion at ONCE, Ángel Luis Gómez, clarifies that the audio description uses the times in which there is no dialogue to add information and anticipate what is going to happen in the next scene to favor the feeling of fear or tension created. in the film. His entity has offered this option for more than 25 years with a private video library. They even have a mobile application since 2014.
Accessibility has little presence in cinemas, according to Sala. She explains that, on many occasions, a single adapted session is announced on a day that may be during the week, which, according to her, represents a time limitation. “People work, they can put more offers on Saturday and Sunday,” she claims. Furthermore, she comments that, sometimes, not even the announcement of the call is accessible to the public to which it is directed. During 2023, the CESyA has not recorded ordinary sessions accessible through devices in the cinemas that it monitors. “However, it is possible that there are special or dedicated sessions that do have specific accessibility services,” the entity clarifies.
Limitations are not only found in access to content or acting training, sometimes also in castings. For this reason, the actors agree that adapting the filming to a person with a disability is very easy. Soroa only needs an interpreter. During the recording with Netflix, her colleagues were also taught basic notions of sign language. “Everyone wanted to learn,” she says. She highlights the involvement of the team Welcome to Eden. As an anecdote, and laughing, he remembers a moment of action: “People stayed behind and I kept running because I didn’t hear the warning to stop.” In these cases, he explains that you can make a sign with light to facilitate communication.
Robles only requires that before the casting they send him the file with the role he has to play because he cannot read it live due to lack of vision. During the recording, he assures, the process is very easy: “I focus on interpreting and the camera looks for me because I don’t know where she is.” Her gofre, her guide dog, always accompanies her on filming. “He’s just another actor,” she jokes. The audio description in set It is also important, for example, to tell the actress how her character is dressed helps her get into the role. Robles has never felt discriminated against in her work projects, quite the opposite, but she does recognize the difficulties encountered in being an actress: “Only 8% of actors make a living from this. Imagine me, I am blind, a woman and over 50. I am at the back of the line.”
Audio description regulated by law
Audio description has been regulated since 2005. Some of the mandatory measures are the identification of characters through colors, the synchronization of subtitles, contextual information and additional help in teletext. In 2022, and with the entry into force of the new General Law of Audiovisual Communication, the Government indicated that audio described films must comply with the quality standards established previously.
In private television, the law establishes that a minimum of 80% of the programs must have subtitles (previously it was 75%). At least five hours of broadcasting per week will have to have translation in sign language (previously it was two hours). On public television, the percentage of subtitling remains at 90% and the number of weekly hours of interpreted broadcasts increases from 10% to 15%.
“Accessibility in the cinema is in the stalls and in the set filming,” says Robles after asking the producers to pay more attention to them. “We can fit into the roles of people with disabilities, but also with many others. In real life there are lame mechanics and blind lawyers,” he claims. Soroa appreciates that in Welcome to Eden His character’s deafness was completely normalized: “They didn’t treat him like he was poor or with paternalism.” Furthermore, he points out that children increasingly have more deaf actors as references. Accessibility is making progress, but, as the head of Cultural Promotion at ONCE says: “There is a long way to go.”
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
_
#Cinema #barriers #limit #blind #deaf #film #set #stalls