In an era when visual images top all other forms of entertainment, one can easily forget that just listening to a story—the way people used to listen to radio programs—can be an enormously rewarding experience.
At the Qiming branch of the Taipei Municipal Library, however, an audience gathers to listen to rather than watch films every Saturday.
This is because the audience is visually impaired. Their enjoyment of the film is immeasurably enriched when a master storyteller explains to them what is happening frame by frame.
Up until now, the narrator of the films has invariably been Huang Ying-hsiung, who founded the “Watch Films with Your Heart” project in 2003 to help the blind gain access to the world of film.
“Before initiating the project, I had been invited to hold screenings at various library branches in Taipei. When I went to the Qiming library auditorium, which was built especially for the blind, I realized the usual film-screening method would not work,” Huang said.
“Even though they can hear sounds, visually challenged people are bound to miss many details of a film. Someone must guide them through a movie for them to fully enjoy films like others do.”
That was why Huang volunteered to be an “orator” for the blind. The idea comes from Huang’s childhood experience during the early years after the Nationalists from China took over Taiwan from Japan. Back then, orators were highly valued by the local film audiences, who only read Japanese and could not understand popular foreign films subtitled in Chinese. The orators were relied upon immensely for their ability to bridge the language gap, until at a later stage Mandarin became prevalent.
Huang does not bridge language gaps. Instead, he breaks the barrier between visual images and the blind.
At the film screening June 5, a full house of spectators were first given a thorough introduction to the contemporary background of Afghanistan and director Barmak Akram’s creative history before “watching” “Kabuli Kid,” a film about a taxi driver and a baby. In this way, the audience was able to have a rough picture of the story in advance.
Then, Huang started explaining every single detail of the film as it was screened. “The woman now gets out of the taxi. A baby is left in the back seat,” said Huang, as a critical scene was taking place.
Visually unimpaired spectators can easily understand the plot on their own, but for the visually challenged, such explanation is no doubt necessary. After all, no one would be so telepathic as to know what happens when hearing a “bump!” of the car door.
There are tips to being a good orator for the blind. Huang admits that he chooses films with a slower tempo, so that he will not have to rush his explanations. In addition, because Huang is an expert in analyzing the human aspects of stories and the stream of consciousness of the protagonists, he sometimes has to press “pause” to be able to expound on the narration.
The detailed methodology has been well-received. Chou Jiin-yih, a blind recording engineer with the project and a loyal supporter of Huang, has been listening to films for seven years, and still enjoys it every time. Trained in audio art before he went blind, Chou said the film lecturer’s narration serves as a great supplement to the sounds he hears from the films.
According to Huang, some people have enjoyed his narrations so much that they invited him to travel with them. “They said, ‘Please, we want you to tell us about the scenery along the way,’” recalled Huang, joyful that he can serve as the eyes of his blind friends.
But as the Qiming screenings are also open to the general public, from time to time Huang has also been heckled by spectators who can see. “They took me for some obstreperous loudmouth and booed me during my screening talks,” Huang said as he shook his head. “I could only tell them that the narration is not done for them, but for the blind, and hoped they could eventually comprehend.”
The idea of “doing something for the visually challenged” has motivated Huang to narrate roughly 60 films over the last few years, all of which have been put in a library database available for downloads. But Huang is far from satisfied with his achievements to date, which have been made possible through the support of a private medical benefactor.
“I hope to narrate 1,000 films before I die,” said Huang. “Due to a limited budget and insufficient manpower, however, until earlier this year I have only been able to complete one a month. I need more support to fast track the project.”
To obtain additional funding, Huang applied for an NT$1 million (US$31,060) prize from the Keep Walking Sponsorship Plan funded by whisky maker Johnnie Walker.
In March of this year, Huang received the good news that his proposal had been approved. With his additional funds, he has been able to recruit a new team of orators. Now more than 10 volunteers of all ages and from all walks of life work on the project.
One notable volunteer is Yin Ming-jie, a young screenwriter from Singapore who worked in the film industry in various parts of Asia before coming to Taiwan.
After only a few training sessions, Yin said, he has come to understand that describing a scene with a camera lens is an entirely different experience from trying to conjure it up with words.
“Describing images verbally has helped me understand what audiences need to know, and listening to how other volunteers describe a scene has helped me develop alternative angles on storytelling,” Yin said. “This has been a very interesting activity to take part in.”
With help from the volunteers, Huang hopes to complete his 1,000-movie project just a few years from now. “In the future, we will have six main teams. If each team can produce 50 films in one year, we will be able to do 300 films per year,” he said. “This way, we should be able to reach our target of a thousand films in three to four years.”
Huang said he hopes the 1,000-film database will attract more attention from both the public and the government when it is finished. “Then more people will become aware of the needs of the blind, and perhaps more people will agree to volunteer for the project.”
“I also hope that the government will help to support our project so that the database can be expanded to include many more works than we have at the present,” he said.
“Watching films is wonderful, and so is leaving something behind for this world,” said Huang, ready to narrate films for as long as he can, with help from equally dedicated volunteers. (HZW)
Write to Tien-ying Hsu at tyhsu@mail.gio.gov.tw