The challenge of making cinema accessible on and off screens

“Cinema accessibility involves all the small actions that allow us to enjoy films all together in a movie theatre”, explains Carlos Loureda, journalist, critic, and head of the Cine y Valores category at the Huelva Ibero-American Film Festival. “It’s an unresolved matter that we’ve had in the Spanish film festivals network. Making a film accessible in its program means that it can be enjoyed in its entirety by anyone”. 

Accessible cinema continues to be, in the eyes of many experts, an unresolved issue in Spain. It goes beyond cinemas, although this was one of the negative impacts the pandemic had on them, and which still drags on. In 2020, film screenings, especially that for films with services adapted to blind and deaf people, has had the biggest drop in the last six years, going from 89,627 in 2019 to 10,114 adapted film sessions in 2020, according to a report from the Charles III University of Madrid. Held last November, the Huelva Ibero-American Film Festival has tried to lean towards a broad definition of accessibility which they have included in their program. Consequently, its Cinema y Valores category has screened If Thalia Were Blind (Si Talía fuera ciega) by Antonio Gil, an ensemble film with 11 stories starring over 100 blind actors through a conversation between Lucius, a blind Roman from the 1^st century who wants to become an actor, and Thalia the muse of the Theatre.

Laws and support for cinema accessibility 

Oddly enough, this response is an answer to Begoña Ballester-Olmos’ main criticism from BBO Cine Accesible, an agency that specialises in adapting films for audiences with different types of disabilities. He summarises that “the biggest problem for deaf or blind people is that they’re not considered as spectators. The creators themselves don’t contemplate that those people might want to consume their product but cannot because it’s not adapted to them.” He regrets that sometimes, “you have to explain that accessibility is not only used to get a grant from the Spanish film institute (ICAA), but also so that many more people can watch and enjoy your films”. 

BBO Cine Accesible specialises in adapting films using subtitles, captions, or audio descriptions. Their definition of accessible cinema is “that everyone can access it. In other words, an audio-visual product has audio and video, a deaf person will not be able to hear the audio, and a blind person will not be able to see the video, so they must adapt”. We are of course grateful that the new Spanish General Audio-visual Law has included accessibility obligations for platforms, as they were previously limited to free-to-air television broadcasting. 

Begoña Goméz Nieto in charge of technical and program management for the Spanish Confederation of Families of Deaf People (FIAPAS) and an expert in accessibility, supports the movement, although she considers it does not go far enough. At present, the norm makes it mandatory for public television to have 90% of its programs subtitled. “We ask for 100%, it has risen from 75% to 80% in private television, and we want 90%. Sign language is still left behind with only 10 mandatory hours per week. Although most deaf people communicate verbally, some still need sign language…”. 

Gómez Nieto adds that “accessibility as a condition for cinema support has been an important step forward, but there is still a significant gap with cinemas and exhibitions. The hearing loop (communication system for people who wear hearing aids) has already been added into public spaces, but not in cinemas. Closed captions would also be essential, with colours to differentiate characters, or a description of the environment, which has been used by televisions for years”. 

Accessible cinema and representation 

Lastly, the same criticism as Ballester-Olmos and Loureda – lack of representation. Accessible cinema is one that represents all groups. “It’s not visible” says Gómez, “in Spain, there are more than a million deaf people, more than 13,000 communicate using sign language, but we rarely see them in films. Not with prosthesis, not using sign language, and not generally speaking with any disability. It’s difficult to see a character and even more so a protagonist with a disability. Maybe outside of Spain”. Although he points out secondary characters in series like Sentimos las molestias, Welcome to Eden (Bienvenidos a Edén), or with the classic character of Gabino Diego in Ay, Carmela.

In this sense, projects such as Sorda, the award-winning short film by Eva Libertad and Nuria Muñoz, which recently announced its adaptation into a feature film, stands out. It portrays the experience of a deaf woman and her hearing partner as they consider becoming parents. The protagonist is played by deaf actress Miriam Garlo, who is also the sister of one of the first directors. The future film is a rare bird in Spanish cinema, both for its theme and for its genesis which stems from both filmmakers’ experience. 

Carlos Loureda, from Huelva, points out that the festival has worked with industry charities in the Spanish province. “We wanted to include it all in one program, so we have been getting together, sat down, spoke and decided together on what they want to see.” Cinema accessibility, he believes, is also “that the viewer becomes the protagonist.” What makes cinemas accessible to a film “is that it can be enjoyed in its entirety, half-way, or with someone accompanying, with a program that gives meaning to what is being done.”

In fact, the programmer includes Chilean film, Tea Time – La once (2014), directed by Maite Alberdi and screened at the Cine y Valores, because of its representation of elderly women. “The accessibility program has also been bringing back the elderly to the cinema, who had been left behind since the pandemic. Sometimes, it’s necessary to put it on the table that cinema must add more protagonists of different genres, communities, or ages and not stay limited to people of a certain age, physic, or very specific abilities”. 

Cover photo: Si Talía fuera ciega (2021), by Antonio Gil Aparicio