Final meeting of the Captioned Movies Forum
The final meeting of the Captioned Movies Forum, which took place on 19 March, concluded an important agreement to show open captioned movies in a number of cinemas throughout Australia. The Forum met several times in 2000 as part of the Commission's public inquiry into access to movies for deaf people and people with hearing impairments. As a result of the outcomes achieved through the Forum this inquiry is now closed.
The inquiry was carried out to assist with the decision on what action to take following a complaint from a deaf man from Western Australia. He had complained that he was not able to enjoy attending his local cinema, as there were no captions available for him to understand the films dialogue.
The public inquiry was open to anyone to contribute. The main contributions to the Forum, however, came from representatives from Hoyts, Village and Greater Union cinemas, the Motion Pictures Distributors Association of Australia (which represents Buena Vista International (Australia), Columbia Tristar Films Pty. Ltd., Twentieth Century Fox Film Distributors Pty. Ltd, United International Pictures Pty and Warner Bros (Aust) Pty. Ltd.); the Australian Association of the Deaf; the Deafness Forum of Australia; the National Working Party on Captioning; the Australian Caption Centre; the Deafness Council of WA; and the individual person whose complaint led to the inquiry.
Details of the inquiry, including submissions and notes from the public forum are available at http://www.humanrights.gov.au/disability_rights/inquiries/capmovie/capmovie.html
As a result of the work of the Forum a number of open captioned movies were shown in Melbourne and Sydney as part of a trial. The results of that trial led to a proposal to show open captioned movies at a number of cinemas throughout Australia on an ongoing basis. The proposal, welcomed by all the Forum members, including the complainant, was made on behalf of Hoyts, Village and Greater Union cinemas and the Motion Pictures Distributors Association of Australia and involves a number of commitments:
1. The Motion Pictures Distributors Association of Australia and its members will bring available open captioned movies into Australia. Australia currently relies on a US organisation called TRIPOD for the production of open captioned films. TRIPOD produces a limited number of new release open captioned films each year.
2. Hoyts, Village and Greater Union will show available open captioned prints of films in one of their main cinemas in Sydney, Perth, Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane for two-week seasons at specific sessions (Wednesday 10 am, Friday 6:30 pm and Sunday 3 pm). Following the two-week period the prints will be available for showing in the Hoyts, Village or Greater Union cinema (where they operate) in Canberra, Hobart and Darwin. The prints will also be available for any other cinema in any part of Australia that wishes to show them.
3. There will be clear advertising of open captioned films being shown in newspapers and through other mechanisms such as web pages.
4. A committee will be established with representation from exhibitors, distributors and the deaf and hearing impaired community to:
- co-ordinate the implementation of the proposal
- ensure potential audiences are aware of films being shown
- encourage other urban, regional and independent cinemas to show captioned films
- ensure staff training is provided in cinemas that show captioned movies
- encourage the development of new opportunities and technologies that improve the availability of captioned movies including Australian produced movies.
This agreement is a tremendous achievement by the Forum and means that many of the 1.7 million Australians who are deaf or hearing impaired will be able to enjoy mainstream movies regularly with families and friends. Many people whose first language is not English also will benefit from the captions.
While there have been many initiatives in other countries this is arguably the world's most ambitious proposal by the largest part of the cinema industry in Australia to screen open captioned new release movies, and the Commission congratulates all those who have been involved in achieving this result.
The committee has already started work on the many organisational tasks to be completed over the next few months. Implementing the proposal to ensure films are in the right place at the right time; advertising is timely and accurate; staff are trained and new opportunities for expanding the program are pursued, will require continuing hard work and co-operation. The Commission has agreed to review progress with Forum members in twelve months time.
The proposal will be publicly launched by Disability Discrimination Commissioner Sev Ozdowski at a special event in Sydney on 9 April and the committee will aim to begin the ongoing showing of captioned movies from early May 2001.
The approach taken by the Commission, that of conducting a public inquiry into an individual complaint which involves a broader public interest issue, has resulted in a number of important outcomes.
First, the individual complainant, with the support and co-operation of local and national advocacy groups, has achieved a solution that satisfied his personal requirements and the complaint is now conciliated. Secondly, representatives from the cinema industry have been able to propose co-ordinated action that deals with the specific complaint and begins the process of responding positively to the larger industry wide responsibilities under the Disability Discrimination Act. Thirdly, a mechanism has been established to co-ordinate implementation of the proposal and identify new opportunities for responding to customer needs. Finally, the Commission was able to ensure the inquiry process provided information on international developments and encouraged the participation of a wide range of individuals and organisations in developing solutions.
For more information on the public inquiry process and updates on current inquiries see http://www.humanrights.gov.au/disability_rights/inquiries/inquiries.html