San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Access upgrades invite more to the movies
Sandy Mix rarely goes to the movies anymore. Part of it is because of the lingering uncertainty surrounding COVID, but she stopped making the effort long before the pandemic.
The San Francisco music teacher has congenital hearing loss and relies on closed-captioning devices that capture a film’s dialogue. That often means the challenges facing Mix’s enjoyment of a film begin before she even buys a ticket.
“Most theaters have some sort of captioning device available, but I could never be sure whether it was going to be working or whether the movie in question supported the captioning,” Mix told The Chronicle, adding that it’s tough to even check with a theater in advance about what’s available for someone with her needs.
When it comes to cinema, accessibility can mean removing physical barriers that impede wheelchair users, as San Francisco’s Roxie Theater did during its COVID shutdown, using a grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation to retrofit the restroom and widen the theater’s entrance. But accessibility for hearing-impaired movie lovers like Mix and the visually impaired isn’t about structural changes to a building; it comes in the form of alternative ways to communicate what is being said and done on the big screen.
Among closed-captioning devices available at local theaters, some fit in a cup holder or attach to the user’s arm to balance the captioning screen atop a gooseneck tube. There are also glasses in which the words appear on the lens. Open captioning, which refers to when words appear onscreen for everyone in the theater to see, may also be available for select screenings.
Then there are assistivelistening audio headsets that serve a dual function — one dial controls volume for the hearing-impaired, while another offers audio description of the action for the visually impaired.
Increased accessibility is not just a good idea for theaters and the film festivals they host as a means of growing audiences; it is also the law. Since 2016, the Americans with Disability Act requires theaters to provide closed-captioning and audio-description devices — though not all theaters have them, even if it puts them out of compliance with the law, because the equipment is so expensive (one Dolby Captiview Display closed-captioning device, for example, is $525).
But even if theaters make that investment, it doesn’t mean all films they show are equipped to provide these services, which are contained on DCPs, the audio, visual and metadata files (the latter includes subtitles, closed captioning and audio descriptions) on servers that connect to digital projectors.
“We show so many film prints, 16 millimeter and 35 millimeter, that aren’t compatible with those services,” explained Berkeley Art Museum Pacific Film Archive exhibition programs manager Nat Rees. “We show a lot of historical works and works that are rare or rediscovered. Many of our films aren’t compliant with accessible services, just because they’re (from) before that 2016 era.”
Since the Roxie Theater reopened in May 2021, it has screened approximately 500
films, not including festival screenings, according to Executive Director Lex Sloan. Only 45 of those films, less than 10%, were accessible to the hearingand visually impaired.
“I am sure it is different for cinemas that show the more mainstream films, but the majority of our titles that don’t come from established distributors lack ADA accommodations,” Sloan said during a
recent meeting with The Chronicle at the theater, where she used a scene from the movie “Tár” to demonstrate the theater’s closed captioning and audio devices.
The equipment is an ongoing investment as improvements and new technology come on the market, and so is upkeep, she said. Batteries in the devices are switched out monthly to assure users a
glitch-free experience.
Meanwhile, she said the theater is mulling adding some open-captioned screenings to increase accessibility. When the Roxie launches its redesigned website, expected by year’s end, users will be able to see at a glance which screenings are accessible and how.
“If you love something as much as we all really love the Roxie, we want to push to continually become better,” Sloan said.
Organizations across the country that produce some of the year’s biggest film festivals are also looking for ways to improve accessibility for festivalgoers. Organizations such as Sundance and SFFilm push to increase screening opportunities for the hearing- and sight-impaired, but the very nature of film festivals presents a challenge.
Many films selected for special screening at the festivals are international, while others are low-budget independents. In both cases, they often lack distributors that might make accessibility a priority.
Adding the necessary technology is another expense a filmmaker may not be able to afford.
Matt Lauterbach, founder of Chicago-based All Senses Go, a company dedicated to increasing accessibility that works with festivals, including SFFilm, is blunt: “The challenge is: Who pays for accessibility?”
“Right now, there’s no consensus about whose responsibility it is to make a film accessible,” he said. “There’s a lot of cultural change that needs to happen to clarify that.”
Lauterbach observed that advocates for accessibility are encouraging film funders to include and prioritize it when deciding which projects to award. They also suggest filmmakers include accessibility in their budgeting the same way they do for color correction and sound mixing.
This is an ongoing dance at SFFilm, where director of operations Jordan Menashe is also the organization’s ADA representative. SFFilm’s ticketing process currently allows the buyer to request accommodations at the point of sale, and the organization keeps equipment on hand for theaters like the Victoria that don’t have any inhouse during festival screenings. And, like the Roxie, Menashe has a dedicated email address for anyone with concerns about accessibility or needs to request access.
But throughout the programming process, discussions are ongoing: Can a filmmaker or distributor
provide an accessible DCP? What screenings will need American Sign Language interpreters for Q&As?
“It starts with the films, always,” Menashe said. “If a film doesn’t have a file, it doesn’t matter whether there are devices available or not. That’s at the root of educating filmmakers and supporting filmmakers, explaining why this type of accessibility in the making of their film is important, and then supporting that and being able to get those files. It’s kind of a whole pipeline, educating filmmakers, then the staff on the ground feeling comfortable implementing those devices, and then guests knowing that the screenings are accessible.”
Beyond the moral imperative of increasing the opportunities for visually and hearingimpaired viewers to enjoy the theatrical experience, BAMPFA’s Rees added that in a time of declining attendance, “the only way to be sustainable or to really kind of have a future is to be inclusive and accessible.”