Going to the cinema to see the latest movies is a pleasure that the deaf cannot afford. Indeed, there are very few institutions that offer subtitled broadcasts that are accessible to this audience. In Saint Gilles-Croix-de-Vie, in the Vendée, an establishment has chosen to adapt its programming to focus on “living together”. Every Friday, the CinéMarine offers screenings with SME subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing. An exemplary and unique initiative in the department.
The CinéMarine of Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie launched this initiative in November 2020, as reported France 3† The independent establishment had been approached by the Accesourd’yonnais association, which had asked it to plan sessions adapted to the deaf. Since then, the 4-screen cinema has been showing movies with the subtitles SME (Deaf and Mal Entandant) every Friday. Enough to allow the deaf and hard of hearing to share a session with a hearing audience. Bonus: they can choose the film that will be programmed next week.
Discreet on screen, SME subtitles describe all the sound intentions of a movie and are colored according to the origin of the sounds. For example, the words are displayed in white if a character is speaking, in yellow if the words are spoken off screen, in red if they are noise indications, or even purple for musical indications. If this way of describing is little used in cinemas, it could still be applied very easily.“95% of the movies come with subtitles. You just need to activate them by starting the projection, but few cinemas in France use them for fear of scaring off viewers who don’t need them. explains Yann Legargeant, co-manager of CinéMarine, at the microphone of France 3†
His establishment is the only one in the Vendée to offer weekly sessions adapted to a deaf audience. The initiative is a great success and could inspire other cinemas…
View the signed report France 3 †