Blind welcome high-tech 'talking picture'
Toolbox
By Peter Hirschfeld Staff Writer - Published: April 23, 2006
MONTPELIER – About 50 moviegoers filed into the Capitol Theatre on Saturday morning for a premiere of a different kind.
For the first time in Vermont, blind and visually impaired residents were able to enjoy a movie without the bothersome practice of having a sighted companion whispering on-screen action into their ear.
"It was excellent," Joy Betz said of the "audio-description" technology that provides a running narrative to blind people via a wireless earpiece.
The technology has been around for five years, according to Mike Richman of the Vermont Council of the Blind, but was until Saturday almost exclusively contained to major metropolitan areas. The Council of the Blind, not to be confused with the Vermont Association for the Blind, is made up of blind Vermonters seeking to improve the lives of their peers. The nonprofit won grants and raised money to have the approximately $6,000 system installed at the Capitol Theatre.
"We're an organization working to help ourselves, and this is something we think is of real value to blind people," Richman said.
Saturday's matinee featured a new release, "The Sentinel," a taut political thriller starring Michael Douglas and Kiefer Sutherland. The blind guests, their sighted companions and a handful of guide dogs nearly filled the house. The technology offered succinct descriptions of on-screen action.
Scripted dialogue tells only part of the story. When Douglas' character lies silently on his bed pondering one of the movie's numerous plot twists, audio description tells us that "he stares pensively, one arm bent behind his head." As a Secret Service agent pursues his target, the listener is told he's "wearing a determined scowl." The narrative by an anonymous male voice includes descriptions of car chases, scenery and love scenes.
"I loved it. It's wonderful. As a blind person, it's a way for me to understand and enjoy what's happening on the screen," said one moviegoer.
The technology isn't entirely new to Vermont. Theater companies and venues including Lost Nation Theater, the Barre Players, FlynnSpace and St. Michael's College have offered audio-description presentations of plays. Such performances are generally one-time events, however, where all blind people must attend the same showing.
Capitol Theatre owner Fred Bashara says about 75 percent of movies now come with studio-produced audio description, DVDs included. He just pops the disc into the system and the narrative plays automatically. He said he plans to have at least one audio-description movie showing all the time at his theater.
Betz, a Middlebury resident, was one of the last to leave the theater Saturday. Asked why, she said she was experiencing movie credits for the first time in more than a decade."It was the Isley Brothers!" she said, referring to a song in the movie. "I don't see this as becoming an integrated part of the sighted world. I see it as becoming an integrated part of the human race."
Betz plans to attend future screenings of other movies, and Richman said he has begun an effort to get systems installed in Burlington theaters.
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