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Vol. 82/No. 11 March 19, 2018
(special feature)
Cuban Revolution involves all, with sight or not
Cinema clubs with audio descriptions expand access to culture for
visually impaired
BY RÓGER CALERO
HAVANA — In February I learned about "Tocando la luz" — Touching the
light — a cinema club for the visually impaired in Cuba. So, while I was
here for the Havana International Book Fair, I went to the Infanta
Theater and joined 50 sighted and nonsighted participants to see “Café
amargo” (Bitter coffee). It’s a 2015 film set in the Sierra Maestra
mountains during Cuba’s revolutionary struggle in 1958. It is one of 92
films featuring audio description that have been prepared so far by the
Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC) in the seven
years of the project’s existence.
A joint project of ICAIC and the National Association for the Blind and
Visually Impaired (ANCI), the cinema club began in Havana and is now
expanding to other provinces.
Audio description is a technique used to describe scenes and visual
effects that take place between dialogue without detracting from the
artistic experience. In Cuba, rather than listening through special
headsets — as is done in theaters in the few capitalist countries where
audio described movies are available — sighted and nonsighted moviegoers
alike listen to a single movie soundtrack. The added descriptions often
have been recorded by well-known actors who perform in Cuba’s radio
drama series.
"Everyone is welcome here," Jorge González Frómeta, the project’s
creator, told me. And many come with friends and relatives.
"It’s been a great initiative," said Marisabel Tamayo, who lost her
eyesight when she was 8 years old. "I’ve always loved the movies. I used
to go with my mom, she would whisper to me things I couldn’t catch. Now,
I don’t have my mom, but I have the cinema club."
"It allows us to socialize with others, get out of the house," said
62-year-old Juan Osborne. He became blind in 1984 from a traffic
accident. Osborne works as a gardener and rehab technician for the
blind. He also performs in the theater group "Sin bastón." (Without a
cane.)
Moviegoers can enjoy an audio described movie once a month, and nine
more during the summer, ranging from Cuban film classics to current
hits. A list and description of movies scheduled is available in Braille
at the theater. Most are Cuban films, but they have also shown some from
Argentina, Mexico and Spain. Copyright costs make it prohibitive to
include U.S. films in the program. Even if ICAIC could afford the
rights, there would be no way to buy them because of the U.S. rulers’
economic embargo against Cuba.
Production of audio description movies is costly, and it’s largely
subsidized by the Cuban state. The theater’s take from the showing I saw
couldn’t have been more than US$20. Admission is the equivalent of 10
cents, and ANCI members pay half price.
Conquest of Cuba’s revolution
During and after the victory of the Cuban Revolution, with the overthrow
of the U.S.-backed Fulgencio Batista dictatorship in 1959, the July 26
Movement and Rebel Army led by Fidel Castro fought to include all
working people in running the country and enjoying the fruits of their
struggle.
"We have always fought to be included in society," said Tamayo,
describing the gains made by the blind and disabled in access to
education and job opportunities. "Before the revolution there was no
social inclusion for the blind or for the poor."
The expansion of access to education and culture for millions of workers
and peasants has been at the center of the revolutionary transformations
of both the Cuban people themselves and their conditions of life. This
got a big boost from the mass literacy campaign in 1961, involving
hundreds of thousands of working people in city and countryside. (See
article on front page.)
The trade unions and other mass organizations intertwined the literacy
campaign with other efforts by workers and farmers to take control of
their own destiny — such as land reform and the fight for jobs for all.
These efforts laid the groundwork for other popular initiatives,
including reopening the national ballet, which Batista had shuttered,
and the flowering of libraries, bookstores, art galleries, movie
theaters, theater groups, choirs and community cultural centers. And the
revolution always strove to include workers with disabilities, as
"Touching the light" demonstrates.
Special schools for the blind
In 1959, there was only one special school for the blind, said Tamayo.
Now there are 15, one in every province.
"Because we have the reputation of having good hearing skills we were
recruited for a special training course, and I ended up working as a
piano tuner for 41 years," she said, explaining that in the 1970s the
number of art and music schools grew and there was a shortage of piano
tuners. Tamayo was also part of the 1979-83 literacy campaign for those
who needed to learn Braille to read and write, one of three organized by
the revolutionary government.
Since 2012 ANCI has had a booth at the Havana International Book Fair.
Despite the economic difficulties confronting Cuba, the association this
year produced 19 books in Braille and two audio books, available free of
charge there. And every year the association surveys members about their
reading interests to decide what to publish.
In the United States today there is a crisis in Braille literacy, due to
government budget cuts and other attacks on public education. Some 40 to
50 percent of blind students don’t finish high school in the U.S., and
only 32 percent of the blind have a job.
When I got back to New York I spoke about this experience with Juanita
Young, a longtime fighter against police brutality who became visually
impaired years ago. She described a summer camp for the visually
impaired that she attends. Eighty percent of the movies shown there
don’t have audio description, she said, especially the newer films. They
say they don’t have the funds. "I’d rather see an old audio described
movie 1,000 times over than one where I have no idea what’s happening,"
she said.
"Touching the light" has recently expanded to Granma province in the
eastern part of the country. "You should not be denied your rights
because of where you live," said project creator Frómeta. "To do this in
a small town in Granma is like having a festival.”
And in Cuba there are also national chess and dominoes tournaments, as
well as baseball leagues, for the blind.
Related articles:
See Cuba’s revolution on May Day Brigade!
‘Cuban Revolution opened road for people to think for themselves’
Cubans help put out fire at US-occupied Guantánamo base
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