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IN TOUCH – The Protests in Iran; Audio Description on Adventure Films

TX:Ìý 07.03.2023Ìý 2040-2100

PRESENTER:Ìý ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý PETER WHITE

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PRODUCER:ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý BETH HEMMINGS

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White

Good evening.Ìý

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Clip – Outdoor Adventure Film

Music

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Voice

A river meanders through the valley far below the peaks.Ìý

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Voice

I just didn’t have any knowledge of the mountains in Scotland, I didn’t know they existed.Ìý The Scotland that I knew was Glasgow, so I had a very jaded view of Scotland.

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White

Later tonight, calls for films like this, promoting adventure in the great outdoors, to be made far more accessible to disabled people.Ìý We’ll be reporting from a film festival in Sheffield, which has been making the case.

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But first, few people can be unaware of the unrest in Iran over the past few months, following the death of Mahsa Amini in custody.Ìý A young woman who was accused of breaking the governing regime’s strict clothing code.Ìý What’s perhaps less well-known are the accusations being made by Western newspapers, human rights organisations and the victims, themselves, that many young people, particularly young women, are being subjected to attacks aimed specifically at their eyes by Iranian security forces.Ìý

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An Iranian news website has reported that well over a hundred ophthalmologists, who are part of the Iranian Ophthalmology Association, have signed a letter calling attention to the seriousness of the situation:

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Iranian Ophthalmology Association Letter

During the recent protest events a large number of patients with eye injuries, due to being hit by bullets, paint balls and the like, have come to medical centres.Ìý Unfortunately, in many cases, the impact has resulted in the loss of one or more eyes.Ìý Therefore, it is necessary to reflect the situation to the relevant authorities and give necessary warnings about the irreparable consequences of such severe eye injuries.

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Security police have so far either ignored or denied allegations that such attacks have been made, calling it propaganda.Ìý But many of those who claim to have been attacked have gone public on social media, despite the risk of reprisals.Ìý The people we approached were not prepared to risk direct interviews with us but here’s a flavour of the kind of things that they’ve been saying online.Ìý Many of them make the point that if others make sacrifices for the cause, then they must be prepared to do the same.Ìý Although they’re having to come to terms with pain, not being able to enjoy nature or see their friends clearly, all of them seem to have a sense that their sacrifice will be worthwhile and they believe they’re getting their message across to the rest of the world, bringing attention to the brutality of the regime.

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What we were particularly interested in understanding is why these attacks have been directed at the eyes, what is its particular significance?

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Khosro Isfahani is from the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Monitoring Service, I put that question to him.

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Isfahani

It appears that these security officers were intentionally targeting sensitive parts of body, including the groins, the eyes, to cause maximum damage.Ìý Some of these people who have been blinded during the protests have described laughing officers pointing guns at their eyes.Ìý Throughout this movement we have seen pronounced presence of women who have been defying the state brutality, constantly being on the frontline of the protests and even walking towards armed officers with open arms, defying all forms of threats and pressure, the pressure that they have been facing for four decades and refusing to bend.Ìý So, of course, the regime targets women during these protests.Ìý Many of the women and young people targeted during the protests are young, beautiful people.

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White

How are these people getting medical help because I imagine there’s quite a lot of pressure on the relevant hospitals?

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Isfahani

Indeed, and there is actually a security risk when it comes to providing medical help to people injured during protests.Ìý There have been cases of doctors and nurses getting arrested because they were taking care of people who were injured during these protests.Ìý There have been cases of people smuggling medicine to areas that the Islamic Republic had actually imposed blockade against provision of medical care to protestors. So, doctors and nurses that were taking care of these people are risking their life, are risking their jobs and their livelihood to extend help to people that need them.

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White

And I think some ophthalmologists have made their protests or the nearest you can get to making a protest in these circumstances.

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Isfahani

Indeed, 140 doctors signed an open letter criticising the government for targeting the eyes of the protestors, they were shocked by the high number of cases they had to take care of.

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White

Is this kind of attack specific to Iran or has this kind of thing happened elsewhere?

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Isfahani

This type of attack has happened in almost all authoritarian states, wherever the regime deploys brute force for quashing protest we are seeing similar patterns from internet shutdowns to the use of tear gas and sexual assault and rape, to targeting protestors’ eyes and sensitive parts of the body, these are patterns that are happening both across the Middle East and even in South America.

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White

Now when the authorities are asked about these cases they either have ignored requests, for example, from the Western press, or they’ve said this is just not happening.Ìý How have you been able to authenticate the cases of the victims that you’ve been talking about?

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Isfahani

Both the victims and doctors have provided medical documents showing how these protestors were blinded.Ìý We have seen videos of the regime using brute force against the protestors.Ìý And when we talk about the denial that we are hearing from the regime, we are talking about the same regime that arrested a woman whose nine-year-old son was killed during the protests, they arrested her and forced her to record a video saying that her son was not killed by the regime.Ìý We are speaking of a regime that killed a 15-year-old, a 16-year-old and alleged that they had committed suicide.Ìý These are cases that have been verified multiple times by different outlets and rights groups.Ìý So, when the Islamic Republic comes out and denies these cases I would take that with more than a grain of salt.

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White

Just finally, what is the current situation, I mean is there any evidence that these attacks are lessening as the press of other countries are taking an interest?

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Isfahani

To be honest, the Islamic Republic has never bent in the face of criticism from the West.Ìý The four-decade history of the Islamic Republic is marred by executions and arrests and beating protestors.Ìý So, no, the Islamic Republic is not going to change its tactics because international media is criticising them.

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White

Khosro Isfahani, of ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Monitoring, thank you very much indeed.

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Now, the quantity and quality of audio description services for visually impaired people has been pretty much a regular topic of ours on In Touch but over the weekend a film festival in Sheffield has been looking at an aspect of this which I don’t recall us tackling in the past, that is the lack of accessibility on films promoting real life adventure, outdoor activities and how it can be improved and extended.

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One of the driving forces behind this festival has been Poppy Levison, who explained what a contribution audio description had made to her appreciation of films about her enthusiasm for sport and the outdoors.

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Levison

I mean I grew up going to these festivals.Ìý Being visually impaired it always a bit tricky, I could see most things but like not always the details, I’d miss things and my mum would usually have to sit and whisper in my ear and tell me what the dialogue is.Ìý And then when my sight deteriorated a bit and I became blind, I continued doing all of the outdoors activities I loved, I continued climbing and surfing but I felt like I’d lost this key part of my culture, which was going to these film festivals.Ìý So, to be able to come to a film festival and have audio described performances, it’s actually really emotional for me because I feel like I’ve been welcomed back into a community that I really cherish.Ìý I really love it when I hear really great audio description and we’ve got a great one here called Art of Grind, with this actor from the UK who’s doing this wonderful American accent and giving it loads of energy and it’s just – it really fits with the storyline, it just feels like my experience has been valued in the exact same way that a sighted person has.

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White

But perhaps what makes this festival particularly interesting is that the pressure to improve this aspect of filmmaking seems to be coming from the inside, that is from the filmmakers themselves.Ìý Well, we’re joined by two of them:Ìý Danielle Sellwood, who’s been making adventure films for many years and is the mum of Poppy, who’ve we’ve just heard there and we’re also joined by Tim Burton, not the man behind Edward Scissorhands or the Nightmare Before Christmas but the Head of Production at Coldhouse collective, one of the leading filmmakers in the country producing these kinds of adventure films.

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Tim, if I can come to you first of all, we’re given a clue as to why Danielle might have felt strongly about this but how did you get involved?

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Burton

Yeah, thanks very much for having us and hopefully you’re not disappointed I’m not the other Tim Burton.

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White

Well, we’ll get over it.

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Burton

Last year we were commissioned by Berghaus, an outdoor brand, and we started making a film about a deaf climber and as we started talking to her more and more we realised that actually none of the films that we’ve made in 10 years were accessible to her.Ìý We realised we had to change.

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White

And let me bring in Danielle on this point because I don’t believe the significance of accessibility of your films dawned on you straightaway, which is interesting since clearly you have been taking Poppy to festivals, but you were taking her to festivals where she couldn’t follow the films.

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Sellwood

Yeah, I mean, it wasn’t really until Poppy was registered blind two years ago, after her eyesight deteriorated, that she started using audio description.Ìý I had no idea about audio description, you know, it’s way worse for me because it’s my own daughter can’t access my own work.Ìý So, instantly, I just set about learning how to do it, how to do open captions and how to do audio descriptions.

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White

And how difficult is it to do audio description because I mean perhaps most people are used to the idea of telling people what’s happening into the background but with quite a lot of dialogue to support it, but, you know, I can imagine your films being a lot of howling winds and falling snow and all that kind of stuff, how difficult is it to audio describe it in a meaningful way?

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Sellwood

For me, I think, it’s really important to have a sort of a specialist input.Ìý So, I understand this industry, I understand some of the terminology, I work really hard on even research where a lighthouse is, for example, on a film, just to make sure I’m describing that correctly – whether it’s cast iron or whether it’s stone – all these little things that kind of do make a difference to the feel of a film.Ìý Obviously, you can’t describe absolutely everything, so it’s also about choosing the things that are building a complete picture.Ìý You know the filmmaker has made a decision to put in even a split second of a dog running by, you know, that is a conscious choice by them.Ìý You know I do make a point of bringing in as much of those little details that add the flavour.

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White

One of the points you make about this is the lack of access to these films is discouraging people from activity and that the statistics show that disabled people, including visually impaired people, are far less active than able-bodied people, to use possibly an outdated phrase, I mean is that really true?Ìý Surely, introducing people to activities is the responsibility of schools, local authorities, parents, are they really going to pick it up from these kinds of films?

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Sellwood

Well, we hope so. Obviously, the one amazing thing that we have with our industry is a lot of this content goes out for free over social media, so we’re certainly able to reach a younger audience.

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Burton

I think also, you know, there are a lot of people who go to these festivals to learn more and actually, sometimes, I think, that they become a little bit more inspired.

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White

Nonetheless, perhaps unsurprisingly, it is people who already have enthusiasm for outdoor activities who are going to be drawn to festivals like yours, people like John and his sighted friend, Lauren, who turned up this weekend.

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John

I do a bit of everything, I’m a climber, I do sailing, hiking.Ìý Quite a few of the films are foreign language films that they put subtitles on and then they were totally inaccessible.Ìý But to have somebody reading those subtitles out means I can really feel as though I’m part of the film now.Ìý Before audio description was on films I could vaguely see the colours on the screen but I had no like context of what was happening.

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Lauren

My name’s Lauren Bean, I’m John’s friend, I often take him to films and it’s just absolutely awful having to read out subtitles because people around you are like glaring at you the whole time, so having audio description is just next level really.Ìý And I enjoy audio description as well.Ìý There was a film I saw with waves and I just loved it, it really added something, I think it’s a great thing to have.

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White

Well, that’s the state of play with adventure films but what about audio description in the film industry more generally, what’s the current situation?

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Our reporter, Fern Lulham, a film enthusiast herself, has been looking at that and she joins me now.Ìý Fern, what have you found?

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Lulham

Well, Peter, I think it’s fair to say that your chances of being able to enjoy an audio described film at the cinema are pretty hit and miss at the moment.Ìý As a general rule it seems that the bigger film the more likely it is that it’ll have audio description but even if a film does have audio description, then there’s still the question of whether cinema will have the equipment provided to actually access it.

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White

So, how seriously do you think the film and the cinema industries are actually taking the need to provide audio description?

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Lulham

Well, this is something that Tim Calvert of the Audio Description Association has taken a close look at and I asked him whether there are any actual legal requirements for audio description when it comes to film.

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Calvert

There isn’t anything specific in law, just a requirement under the disability provision of the Equality Act 2010.Ìý That’s more from a cinema point of view though, for the cinemas to make reasonable adjustments.Ìý The actual studios and distributors, they’re not really directly covered by this, given that they’re not the providers of services in the way that cinemas are.Ìý I’ve been into a few cinemas and asked for a headset and some of the staff don’t even know what audio description is, which kind of makes you believe they haven’t had an experience where someone has asked them for one in the past.Ìý The UK Cinema Association has a website which tells you which cinemas are showing films with audio description.Ìý At your average Cineworld I would say like maybe 80% of the films are audio described.Ìý There is technology in development at the moment around a mobile phone app which will actually provide audio description through your mobile phone.

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White

Tim Calvert.Ìý Fern we heard Tim estimate that one of the major cinema chains provide audio description in around 80% of the films they show, I mean are there any official figures on this?

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Lulham

Now, I haven’t been able to find anything very recent, however, as long ago as 2014, RNIB made a press release saying that around two-thirds of English language films released in the UK in the previous year, so 2013, were available with audio description.Ìý So, it’s not inconceivable, I’d say, that you’d stand an 80% chance of seeing an audio described film at a major cinema chain by now.

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White

Right.Ìý What about cost, what about people who say – well, there’s quite a lot of cost for this and if there really isn’t the enthusiasm for it, why should we spend that sort of money?

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Lulham

Well, I’ve heard people in the industry say that it shouldn’t be because of cost because some filmmakers actually seem to spend more on snacks on the set than they would for providing audio description, so it puts it in context.Ìý And I think cost should only really be an issue for some of the smaller filmmakers and hence why most blockbusters, these days, do tend to have audio description now.

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White

Okay, we’ll have to leave it there.Ìý Lots to think about.Ìý Danielle Sellwood, Tim Burton and Fern Lulham, thank you all very much indeed.

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And that’s all for today.Ìý Do join us next week where we’ll be speaking to Network Rail, they’ll be telling us whether this goal of 2025, for the full completion of tactile paving at station platforms is actually realistic.Ìý In the meantime, you can email your questions or queries about anything you’ve heard on this evening’s programme to intouch@bbc.co.uk, you can leave voice messages on 0161 8361338 or you can go to our website bbc.co.uk/intouch.

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From me, Peter White, producer Beth Hemmings and studio manager Amy Brennan, goodbye.