08 · 21 · 23

Accessible Cinema: Interview with Cine para Imaginar and Nirvana Laureano

Gabriela Martínez

Gabriela Martínez

Translator, Emilio Cervantes

Cine para imaginar is a project seeking to bring people with sensory disabilities (hearing or sight) to the movies, television, or theater. In the case of people with blindness and vision impairment, audio description is used, which is the method that transmits the essential visual information through a voice parallel to the original production.

For the people with deafness or hearing loss, two accessible forms are used: sign language and closed captions (CC), technology that allows people with hearing disabilities to access to media content through embedded or hidden captioning, which projects written what is transmitted orally: music or sound effects. Sign language, on the other hand, is a tool that consists of the recording of a Mexican Sign Language (LSM) interpreter, who translates the auditory information and then embeds it in a small box on the screen, which can be seen at the time of the transmission.

The Morelia International Film Festival (FICM), as part of its Cine para todxs 2023 program, will present five screenings of Ana and Bruno (2017), by Carlos Carrera, with audio description and Mexican Sign Language interpretation, thanks to the participation of this project.

For this reason, we had the chance to interview Danna Albicker, who spoke to us about Cine para imaginar, and Danna Nirvana Laureano, interpreter, who with the help of her mother, Elenna Laureano, shared with us her experience while interpreting the film, winner of the 2019 Ariel Award for the Best Animated Feature Film.

FICM: How did Cine para imaginar started?

Danna Albicker: Cine para imaginar started as a college project by a classmate named Jorge Lanzagorta. In Puebla, he was majoring in Communications at the Ibero University. He is a person that, since high school, was losing his sight as a consequence of a disease, so, in his way of becoming a blind person, he researched about the communication and accessibility processes.

His thesis was about making Mexican cinema accessible. In 2011, he contacted some friends from other universities and that is how the project started. From there we saw that nothing in the country was made for people with visual disability. Little by little people from the deaf community were joining in to make cinema accessible for them through Mexican Sign Language. We were learning with the time, much of it was trial and error, which is how Cine para imaginar strengthened.

FICM: Through this whole time, what challenges have you come across while working on this project?

DA: There have been a ton of challenges related to making cinema accessible. Mexican cinema all of a sudden is not really that accessible, especially if you are outside Mexico City. It is complex, there is not such a distribution or exhibition, and we have seen how that is improving years on. Little by little there has been more access to Mexican cinema, but it has been a really complex challenge.

On the other hand, cultural rights of disabled people are not a priority because health or basic rights are first sought to be given. Thus, inviting this group to the cinema or a workshop is complex because everyone does not have the access to transportation or the money to go. In this whole situation, there are tons of inequality and injustice and that has been complex.

We are also a self-funded project, thus every year we seek funding or ways to keep us operating, because we record the audio description and the Mexican Sign Language interpretation, something that is becoming more professionalized by time, and we have a large group of people working on that, but we need to be constantly on the search for how to produce and distribute this films, among other things.

The challenges have been complex, but little by little we have gotten some recognition and there have been many institutions, like IMCINE, that have been supporting us in everything we have to do.

FICM: What does it mean to you to be part of this new stage of Cine para todxs and to be participating with Ana and Bruno?

DA: It is amazing! What we did with Ana and Bruno was to screen it in different communities to children with hearing and visual disabilities. The film was really well received, everyone was so excited with it, adults too. They told us they already had heard about the film, which was really famous, but had not had the chance to experience it.

With support from FOCINE, we made some screenings of the film and now, being part of the Cine para todxs program, we believe it will be a success because the film teaches really good and powerful messages, in relation to the imagination too.

Nirvana, the girl who makes the Mexican Sign Language interpretation of the film, is a deaf child, now more of a teenager, but seeing her there excited, sharing the signs of the film, broadens you and shows you how Sign Language is formed and how it can lead to new ways of imagining and living cinema. Even though you are a hearing person, I think if you see that version of the film, you get introduced to new things you might not know. Thus, you can have more empathy towards disabled persons or join certain movements in favor of their rights. I think that it is very important that we make this type of accessibility visible in cinema.

It is a huge opportunity for us. We are very happy and what an opportunity with Ana and Bruno, which is an amazing film.

FICM: How is the process of making the interpretation of a film?

Nirvana and Elenna Laureano: I will explain to you how it happened. We were in Puebla to check how we were going to do it, the camera manager, the lighting, all of that stuff. Elenna was sitting in front of me, and she explained to me the subject in Mexican Sign Language and I, for example, when I was getting tired, I touched her foot so they could notice, and we could have a pause. We spent approximately four hours on making the film. Actually, it was a little tiring. I found out that my friends here in Guadalajara had watched it and I was very happy about that. It was in reality a really meaningful opportunity in Mexico.

FICM: How has your experience as an interpreter since such an early age been?

NandEL: Look, I am almost 11 years old, but in reality, I did the film one year ago approximately when I was 9. The truth is that I really like Sign Language. It was a lot of fun and I felt very happy doing it for the first time. I had already seen the movie with my grandma, and we watched it many times, every Sunday I went to her house. When the invitation from Dana came up, I said, "Oh, perfect!” The truth is that I really loved doing this interpretation of the movie.

FICM: What was your favorite part of Ana and Bruno?

NandEL: There were many scenes. For example, the part where the monster appeared and there was all the energy, that part was pretty scary, but I am really grateful that I was able to play it. Also, the part of Bruno, Rosi, the elephant, those are my favorite characters, I loved them a lot. I really loved them. The part of the elephant in love is very funny and it was my favorite part. The one with the goats too, because you remember the goats singing and it made me laugh a lot.

FICM: What is the importance of having more Mexican Sign Language screenings?

NandEL: When I watch movies, I am always bothering my mom so I can interpret them. Thus, with this new opportunity, I believe that in the future we could always have films in Mexican Sign Language so that deaf people can enjoy them. This subject of imagination and power invites more people to see and enjoy Ana and Bruno. The thing with Sign Language is that children found it really interesting, and they wanted to see the movie for that reason.

I have about 46 relatives in Guadalajara and in Puebla I have more, and I would really like for more families to learn Mexican Sign Language. For example, my grandma sometimes speaks to me, and I do not understand her; my cousin spells it for me. In class, the dactylology is a bit difficult, sometimes I get confused and I no longer understand, but with writing it is much easier. If I am being honest, I miss the deaf community from Puebla.

FICM: Where can we check what other screenings Cine para imaginar would have besides from Ana and Bruno?

DA: Yes, we are on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter as Cine para imaginar. Now we are about to start with the new cycle of films. We are going to be in different states such as Puebla, Mexico City, Oaxaca, Sinaloa, Yucatán, Guerrero, Guanajuato, and Tlaxcala. So we will be in different states, charities, and places of people with disabilities presenting the new films. We are also open for collaborations and to keep sharing accessible cinema.