Cinema can be experienced in many ways. Have you ever thought about how people with visual impairments watch films? And how often do you see people with visual impairments in cinema theatres?
About seven years ago we began to look for answers to these questions. That was when the first films with audio description appeared in the Docudays UA festival programme — a specially recorded audio track that describes what is happening on screen: the characters' actions, emotions, the setting, gestures or scene changes. An audio description is the onethat helps people with visual impairments follow the story and fully immerse themselves in the atmosphere of a film.
Since then, we have been doing it every year — increasing the number of films, improving the quality of the format, and raising awareness about it in the media, on social media and in relevant communities. Nowadays, the need for different formats of engagement with cultural events is no longer an extra option: it increasingly determines how open those events truly are.
Since the beginning of a full scale invasion the amount of people with visual impairments in Ukraine has been growing. According to data from the National Health Service of Ukraine, in the first seven months of 2023 alone, more than 19,000 cases of vision loss or deterioration were recorded. To understand the scale, that number of people could fill more than ninety average cinema theatres, on a condition that the space and the films themselves are accessible to them.
Accessibility in Ukraine must gradually become a natural part of how we create events, films and shared cultural experiences. And it can start from simple things — within your own project, team or space.
That is why this year, at the 23rd Docudays UA, thirteen films from the festival programme are available with audio description at Zhovten Cinema and the online cinema DOCUSPACE.
How to watch a film with audio description at Zhovten Cinema:
Check the AUDIO DESCRIPTION SCREENING SCHEDULE AT ZHOVTEN CINEMA (English version below) and choose your film(s).
Choose a convenient screening on the film’s page or in the festival schedule — you can purchase a ticket for the screening there right away.
If you need help with registration or obtaining a ticket, please write to us at: [email protected].
Before the screening, download the MovieReading app on your smartphone.
Bring headphones to the cinema and make sure your phone battery is fully charged.
In the cinema hall, select the film from the app's catalogue and load the audio track.
The app will automatically synchronise with the film — and within moments you will hear it.
If you require on-site assistance, please notify the festival team in advance by phone: +380971290686 — Vira.
How to try the audio description experience at the festival
Together with the 03:00 Foundation, we invite viewers to take part in a small festival experiment and to try watching films with their eyes closed — relying only on sound, voice and their own imagination.
Before screenings with audio description, volunteers will offer blindfolds and postcards with a QR code to all those interested. Via the QR code, you can share your impressions after the screening and help draw more attention to the importance of accessible formats in cinema and culture.
We also invite you to share your experience on social media, so that more people can learn about different ways of engaging with cinema.
Festival merch will be given away in a draw among participants.
The voices of audio description at the 23rd Docudays UA
For our festival, it is important not only to create audio descriptions for the blind community, but to work on it together with them. Blind audiences, as well as cultural and civic figures, are therefore involved at various stages of the preparation process. In some films, for example, you will recognise the voices of: Kseniia Shvets, a stand-up comedian from the Underground Stand-Up, host of the Naoslib podcast and guide at the Museum in the Dark Third After Midnight; Uliana Pcholkina, civic activist and accessibility expert; and Oleksandr Teren, veteran, civic activist and writer.
Cinema can be experienced in many ways.
Try it differently at Docudays UA. Tell others!
Main photo: Stas Kartashov
The 23rd Docudays UA is held with the financial support of the European Union, the Embassy of Sweden in Ukraine and the Ukrainian State Film Agency. The opinions, conclusions, or recommendations do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union or the governments of these countries. Responsibility for the content of the publication lies exclusively with the authors and editors of the publication.
