Film screening for visually impaired students

The Cinestar cinema in Nguyen Trai Street in Ho Chi Minh City is crowded   every   Saturday   morning.   But   today   it has welcomed 200 visually impaired students of the Nguyen Dinh Chieu  School. They stood in line and came in to watch the animated comedy adventure film Zootopia,   which   has   high-quality   sound   and   voice-over   to enable the   students to absorb the movie’s content in detail. When the film ended, the children talked animatedly about it.

Student Le Minh Hoang expressed his feeling “This is the first time I have had an opportunity to go to the cinema and watch a film with such high-quality sound. I liked the film’s music the most. I hope my friends and I will have more chances to watch educationally entertainment films.”

Because he is blind, Tran Thanh Lam never thought he would watch a film. But now his dream has come true. Lively voice-overs allowed the students to catch every detail of the film and understand the film’s characters. Lam said watching a movie at the cinematheque was a special experience that has helped him become more self-confident.

In addition to selecting an appropriate film with clear dialog, the organizing board brought in somebody to describe the film’s context, the characters’ clothing, and the atmosphere of each part of the film in voice-over to help the students understand the movie better.

Hai Dat, the voice-over person, describes how he prepares for each screening “Before doing the voice-over, I search on the Internet for more information and preview the film once. Then I do a summary so that the voice-over can convey the message of the film to the students.”

Nguyen Thi Lan Hanh, a member of Cinestar’s management board, said the project aims to provide visually impaired people the same entertainment opportunities sighted persons enjoy.

Two days a week Cinestar offers free screenings for visually impaired students of the Nguyen Dinh Chieu School, the Binh Minh School for disabled children in Tan Phu district, and the Sponsor Center for Foster Children in Go Vap District in Ho Chi Minh City. Each screening is attended by 200 children. Cinestar provides free drinks and snacks.

According to Hanh, the project has been implemented in HCMC and neighboring provinces for schools and organizations of the blind. This is the way of showing social responsibility.  She said she hopes the project will expand as the community recognizes its importance.