Did you know that Docudays UA was the first festival in Ukraine to introduce accessible film screenings?

It all started with just a few films and a strong belief: cinema should be accessible to everyone. Today, almost all films in the festival programme come with descriptive subtitles for people with hearing impairments, and the number of films with audio description for viewers with visual impairments is also growing every year.Furthermore, at our key festival events, we provide Ukrainian Sign Language interpretation to ensure full inclusion.

SCREENINGS WITH AUDIO DESCRIPTION

How does it work 

Audio description is a specially created voiceover track that narrates a film’s visual elements: actions, facial expressions, characters’ moods, locations, and other important visual details that are not conveyed through dialogue. This narration is inserted during pauses between the characters’ lines and allows visually impaired viewers to fully experience the plot and atmosphere of the film.

If you’re watching the film in a cinema, download the Earcatch app to your mobile phone. Before the screening begins, open the app, select the film, and listen through your headphones. Once the film starts, Earcatch will automatically sync the audio description with the soundtrack.

To activate audio description in the online cinema DOCUSPACE, simply click the “AD” button next to the player. You can listen with or without headphones.

List of films with audio description:

• Songs of Slow Burning Earth (Olha Zhurba, Ukraine, Denmark, Sweden, France)

• Timestamp (Kateryna Gornostai, Ukraine, Luxembourg, Netherlands, France)

• My dear Theo (Alisa Kovalenko, Poland, Ukraine, Czech Republic)

• In Limbo (Alina Maksimenko, Poland)

• My Sweet Child (Maarten De Schutter, Netherlands)

• Glass, My Unfulfilled Life (Rogier Kappers, Netherlands)

• American Pastoral (Auberi Edler, France)

• Militantropos (Yelizaveta Smith, Alina Gorlova, Simon Mozghovyi, Ukraine, Austria, France)

• Sanatorium (Gar O’Rourke, Ireland, Ukraine, France)

• The Track (Ryan Sidhoo, Canada, Bosnia and Herzegovina)

• King Ridwan (Sammy Shefa Idris, Netherlands)

• Echo (Emi Buchwald, Poland)

• What’s the Film About? (Poorva Bhat, India)

• A Place to Call Home (Parisa Aminolahi, Netherlands)

• Mû (Malin Neumann, Germany)

SCREENINGS WITH DESCRIPTIVE SUBTITLES

How does it work

Descriptive (adapted) subtitles have become a regular part of our festival, designed to make films more accessible for people with hearing impairments. These subtitles include not only dialogue but also special indicators that describe surrounding sounds — music, rain, footsteps, gunshots, and more. This helps viewers better immerse themselves in the film’s atmosphere and understand the full context of the story. This year, almost all films at the festival will feature descriptive subtitles.

For offline screenings, descriptive subtitles are embedded directly into the video. If you're watching films on the DOCUSPACE online cinema, simply click the subtitle icon in the top left corner and select the descriptive subtitle track.

 

EVENTS WITH SIGN LANGUAGE INTERPRETATION

The festival’s opening ceremony and 11 events from the RIGHTS NOW! human rights programme will be interpreted into Ukrainian Sign Language.