Ever since the closure of Edinburgh Filmhouse, a cinema where I felt safe as a deafblind person and which regularly screened descriptive subtitled screenings, I’ve had to gradually rebuild my confidence in attending an unfamiliar cinema. I live in a city with a variety of multiplexes and boutique cinemas, but not many with independent programming, let alone accessible screenings. Luckily, I have a nearby Picturehouse with both independent programming and accessible screenings.
After Filmhouse’s closure in October 2022, I hardly visited the cinema, and I felt a deep loss of independence. There aren’t many recreational activities that I can confidently do alone, but cinema-going at Filmhouse was an exception for me. Last year, I was lucky enough to meet my partner, who also shares the same love for the big screen as me. Attending the cinema together and with friends meant that I rebuilt my confidence and feeling of safety as I was able to familiarise myself with the space on a regular basis. It’s meant that I now have the confidence to attend that cinema alone, as I feel more able to ask the staff for support. Gaining back that independence and confidence has been monumental for me.
I’ve had some brilliant cinema adventures in the last year, from experiencing descriptive subtitled screenings of Barbenheimer, All Of Us Strangers, and Kim’s Video (to name a few). It’s liberating to be able to rely on local cinemas which schedule reliable, regular, accessible screenings (as should be the norm), but whereas I used to hold a breath waiting to see the first line of subtitles on the screen as the film begins, I now wait to see the quality of the subtitles.
I strongly believe that descriptive subtitles are meant to create as equal an experience as possible and that they represent a layered soundtrack that a hearing person would thread into the overarching experience of the film. This is a belief shared by my colleagues at Matchbox Cine, who have the balancing act of providing concise and immersive descriptive subtitles that will bring a Deaf person into the film experience.
I saw Challengers recently (what an energetic, fun, horny movie!), and I groaned when I saw the first descriptive label1, which was in all capitals2. There were missing and inconsistent labels (which my own hearing partner noted as well), and while there were some descriptions of the music, I didn’t feel like they represented the energy of the soundtrack or the film’s atmosphere. Given the importance of music to the experience of a film, this is something that absolutely matters in the moment, but if handled badly can have ripple effects for the Deaf and hard-of-hearing audience, as a film’s cultural footprint expands (see the header image, from this week’s Saturday Night Live).
The featured songs are notable, and there are many Deaf and hard-of-hearing people who have some hearing (like myself) or those who acquire deafness later in life and who would recognise the song and, therefore, its significance, if its title was specified in the label alongside descriptive labels of the music’s tone.
In an article that begins, “No one does a needle drop quite like Luca Guadagnino”, USA Today quote the Challengers director on the song’s selection:
Guadagnino says he worked extensively with the movie’s editor, Marco Costa, “on finding the right piece of music. It took us a while and we tried many things,” including [David Bowie’s] “Time Will Crawl,” which now plays later in the sequence. “Eventually, it must’ve been my partner – who’s a bit younger than me – who said to use ‘Hot in Herre,’ because that’s what that generation clicked with.”
I often encounter films from major distributors with subpar subtitle files, which feel like they’ve been developed without the feedback of Deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences and the spectrum of hearing loss within our community. I’ve also encountered a few instances where cinemas and exhibitors have operated under the false assumption that a film without dialogue or a film with translation subtitles doesn’t require full descriptive subtitles.
Like many others, I was very keen to watch The Zone of Interest in the cinema. I waited to see if any accessible screenings would be scheduled, as I knew the soundtrack was instrumental to the film. I later found out that the distributor hadn’t sourced a descriptive subtitles file. I attended the film, and as the film is only in German and Polish dialogue, the entire dialogue was subtitled. The subtitles themselves were quite small, with poor contrast, so audiences at the back struggled. I also wondered throughout if there were any music cues or sound effects I was missing out on.
So, when Clarisse Loughrey, reviewing for the Independent, refers to the film’s extended title sequence providing “a kind of sensory deprivation,” the irony isn’t lost on me. She continues, “A darkened screen gives way to the hellish sirens of Mica Levi’s score, before we awaken, powerless to disrupt [Rudolf] Hoss’s hermetic reality,” describing an effect that would be lost to many Deaf audiences, without the vital developing context that descriptive subtitles provide.
I always have an additional layer of disappointment when a non-English film is intentionally shown without full descriptive subtitles, since the audience is already prepared to read the majority of the film. When the spoken language isn’t accessible to English-speaking audiences, it’s the unquestioned, defacto norm to have text on the screen. But, when the shoe is on the other foot, and Deaf people aren’t able to access the full auditory experience and therefore need descriptive subtitles, then it’s too jarring, or it feels like too much of an ask. It becomes a point of comfort over access, as well as double standards. This comfort for hearing audiences is imagined and assumed by exhibitors, with audiences increasingly attending descriptive subtitled screenings elsewhere and using descriptive subtitles on social media and streaming platforms.
On a whim, I decided to see Robot Dreams. It was one of my favourite films this year, and I found a lot of genuine joy in this tender, comedic, and surprising animation. I wanted to see it with descriptive subtitles, but I couldn’t find any accessible screenings in my city. The film has no dialogue, but the soundtrack is essential to the film’s storytelling, optimising sound effects and music to build characterisation. This auditory significance is mentioned by Wendy Ide, writing for the Guardian, where she references the use of Earth, Wind & Fire’s “September”, “a recurring musical motif, used to increasingly wrenching effect”. Again, an important aspect of the storytelling lost to the Deaf audience – or frustratingly teased to the hard-of-hearing audience, who perhaps have some sense without clarity of its significance.
I had a similar experience seeing The Zone of Interest without descriptive subtitles, where I felt like my experience was perhaps compromised. I chose my keen interest in the film over my access needs, which feels unfaithful to the work I do as an access consultant and to my own beliefs. While I feel this sliver of guilt, of fraud, I have to recognise that this situation is representative of the fact that Deaf and hard-of-hearing people feel they have to tolerate and settle for inaccessibility every time they consider going to the cinema, whether that’s because they’re interested in a particular film or because they don’t want to feel left out of a group activity with hearing people. I have to remind myself and others that compromising on my access needs only happens when access doesn’t exist, because either cinemas aren’t scheduling accessible screenings or access materials aren’t created or shared.
With The Zone of Interest, I spoke to an independent exhibitor who had understood that the film would arrive with both descriptive subtitles and audio description. The DCP (the hard drive that stores the film files) arrived with a closed caption version of the descriptive subtitles, which can’t be shown on a cinema screen unless reformatted3. The distributors, in this case, didn’t endeavour to prepare or deliver the file(s) useful for UK exhibition, and essentially waved off the query, saying, “dialogue subtitles are enough”. This is an all-too-common issue of misinformation and misunderstanding around access delivery, ultimately impacting audiences with access needs, and missing an opportunity to bring The Zone of Interest to the widest audience possible while offering a sub-par experience to anyone who relies upon, to whatever extent, that provision.
Robot Dreams screened at Independent Cinema Office’s Autumn Screening Days in 2023, and as part of their efforts to support and standardise accessible screenings, ICO commissioned my colleagues at Matchbox Cinesub to create a descriptive subtitle file for the film4. After some research, I did find that some independent cinemas in other parts of the UK showed the film with descriptive subtitles.5 The frustration lies in the fact that a professional subtitle file existed, but it wasn’t widely employed. I don’t know if it’s because the multiplexes in my city didn’t have access to it or because there’s a misunderstanding that the film didn’t need to be presented with descriptive subtitles as “there’s no dialogue”, or simply because they chose not to use it.
Through my personal and professional experiences, I regularly come up against access failures that could be prevented through resource and information sharing. A few years ago, myself and Matchbox Cine were part of the working group behind Sidecard. Originally supported by ICO, Film Hub Scotland and Film Hub Wales/Inclusive Cinema, and now facilitated by Matchbox Cine, Sidecard is a free, online database designed for logging and researching access materials made for films. Users can search and upload details of descriptive subtitles, audio description files and other materials related to cinema accessibility. The site also offers full glossaries and best practice guides related to distributing and screening films accessibly.
The subtitle file information for Robot Dreams was on Sidecard – you simply have to enter the film’s name in the homepage search window – and ICO or Matchbox Cine would have shared it with anyone who wanted to put on accessible screenings, including the distributor creating the DCPs for cinemas to use.
For this year’s Deaf Awareness Week, I wanted to celebrate the leaps and bounds I’ve made in my own personal journey of accessible cinema-going. I’m also going to hold space for the disappointment and frustrations that come with cinema-going as a deaf person, and my own goals as a professional access consultant.
This week, and every week, I’m calling on others to support Deaf audiences and advocate for access in whatever way you can. You might ask your local cinema about their accessible screenings, or you may share Sidecard widely within the sector and use it yourself. Maybe, hopefully, you’ll share this blog – and if it affects you, you’re very welcome to get in touch, to commiserate, collaborate or collude.
Charlie Little, Access Consultant
- Subtitles made for access purposes include, in addition to all dialogue, descriptive elements in the form of speech identifiers “[Charlie] This is the dialogue.”; sound labels “[Charlie screams”]; and music labels “[Music – “September” by Earth, Wind & Fire]”, as required. ↩︎
- All-caps are a hallmark of “closed caption” subtitle files prepared for US television, and often denote a sub-par or only moderately effective file, in editorial terms. ↩︎
- “CCAP” DCPs come with subtitle files prepared to “closed captions” specs, and are designed for use with individual handheld devices that are a) not in wide use in the UK and b) generally considered extremely unreliable where they are in wide use, the USA. “OCAP” DCPs come with subtitle files prepared so that they can be seen on-screen, by the entire audience. Since CCAP files are prepared and formatted for the handheld devices, they typically can’t be used for OCAP screenings, the equipment won’t allow it. ↩︎
- The Independent Cinema Office (ICO) commission theatrical-quality descriptive subtitles, where none exist, for films selected to be showcased in their Screening Days programmes, which are designed to give exhibitors “the chance to watch the best upcoming film releases from across the globe and discuss them with industry peers”. Typically, those subtitle files are used for the online editions of Screening Days, where they can be switched on and off. The files are then shared with the distributors, so that they can make use of them for the films’ theatrical, streaming and/or disc release – if they choose to. The idea is to mitigate the effort and expense required and therefore facilitate and encourage accessible screenings, but packaging DCPs or repackaging existing DCPs with these access materials is an expense and effort in itself, so it doesn’t always happen. ↩︎
- Robot Dreams is now available to rent via Curzon Home Cinema, but it’s not immediately clear whether they’re making use of a descriptive subtitle file here. Unfortunately Curzon don’t note the presence or absence of access materials in their listings – you have to pay £15 before you find out if they’re on there. ↩︎
