This Sunday, June 7, the Mégarama Beaux-Arts cinema hosted a screening of a particular kind as part of the project Silence it turnssupported in particular by Apeda (Association of parents of hearing impaired children). “The cinema lets us choose a film, even an older one, related to deafness, subtitled and preferably with deaf actors,” explains Nathanaëlle Denizot, an employee of the association.
Aline Bouchain, president of Apeda, explains the genesis of this project: “It was born from the desire to see this film, She doesn’t hear the motorcycle. There were several parents and deaf people who wanted to see it, but it was not broadcast in Besançon. We therefore contacted the cinema, with the association Get Your Hands Out of Your Pockets, to try to get this distribution.” A highly symbolic action: “It’s the story of a person who was born deaf, who was implanted – like some of our children – and who also signs and speaks.”
More inclusion requested
Beyond the pleasure of attending the screening, this session is also a call to cinemas for greater inclusiveness. “There are films that are not subtitled at all, so we cannot see them in a traditional screening.” And subtitling is not necessarily an end in itself. “People who are really into the sign do not always master written French,” specifies Aline Bouchain.
The ideal solution? An inlay in the screen of a person dubbing in sign language. “It would be great and it would really make all films accessible to all deaf people.” There is still a way to go, but the various stakeholders do not intend to give up. A next session of this project will take place next October and, if the choice of film has not yet been decided, it will be followed, as always, by a debate with the presence of a sign language interpreter as well as a completed spoken language (LPC) coder.
