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September 27, 2003

Deaf to get captions on top films

From: New Zealand Herald, New Zealand - Sept 27, 2003

Captioned movies targeted at the deaf and hearing-impaired will be launched in New Zealand next week.

The Human Rights Commission said the films would begin on October 2 at a theatre in both Auckland and Christchurch, and then tour 11 other centres around the country. One new movie will go on the circuit every month.

The decision follows a complaint to the commission by deaf community lobbyist Kim Robinson in December 2001, which led to the commission running a series of meetings this year, involving representatives of cinema owners, film distributors and the deaf and hearing-impaired communities.

Commissioner Robyn Hunt said the screenings were a major achievement.

"The screenings mean that deaf and hearing-impaired adults and kids will be able to more fully enjoy popular films. There were 420,000 to 450,000 New Zealanders who were deaf or hearing-impaired," she said.

Captioned movies are standard movies with subtitles for the dialogue and other aspects of the sound track, such as sound effects. A commission spokeswoman said the Auckland screenings would be at Village 8 New Market and Village 8 Manukau. Others will take place in Whangarei, Hamilton, Tauranga, Rotorua, Palmerston North, New Plymouth, Napier, Wellington, Nelson, Christchurch, Dunedin and Invercargill.

The first four movies are Bruce Almighty, Matrix Reloaded, Shrek and Ice Age.

The film schedule, and subsequent movies, will be posted on the website at www.captionmovies.co.nz from next week. They will also carry a special "captioned" symbol on newspaper advertisements. Representatives of the deaf community are working with TVNZ to have the movies indexed from the teletext home page.

A feature of the 13-city schedule is the co-operation of the movie theatre owners and the film distributors. Overseas experience shows general audiences prefer movies without subtitles, and captioned screenings are often run at a loss.

Elizabeth Trotman, marketing manager of Hoyts NZ, who took part in the commission hearings, said the screenings were a service to our community.

Ms Hunt urged those who would benefit from the screenings to attend the sessions in their areas.

Angela Sew Hoy, of Captioning Access New Zealand, said: "It's been a tremendous effort by everyone. It's a new experience for us - a dream becoming reality."

©Copyright 2003, New Zealand Herald