Ankara's accessible film festival gearing up for 1st edition

A festival where films are accessible to the hearing and visually impaired: This used to be a dream for Turkey's disabled community, but now it's becoming real, thanks to the Ankara Engelsiz Filmler Festivali (Ankara Accessible Film Festival) set to take place in the first week of September. The six-day festival will run from Sept. 3-8 with screenings at CerModern museum and the Cinemaximum Theater in the Armada shopping mall, said its organizer, the Ankara-based cultural events team Puruli Culture and Art. The aim of the festival is simple: to make cinema available and, perhaps more importantly, enjoyable to all. “Keeping in mind that cultural life can only be enriched when all members of society join in, we are [introducing] the first edition of the Ankara Accessible Film Festival to create an atmosphere where audiences with or without disabilities can watch films together and to raise awareness about disability issues,” the organizers said. All films in the festival will be screened with audio-description for audiences with impaired vision and with sign language and detailed subtitles for audiences with impaired hearing. Question and answer sessions with film crews following the festival's screenings will also feature sign language interpreters. The festival is not ignoring audiences without impairments. These festival-goers will watch the screenings with a headset playing the original sound of the movie. These will be available upon request at the screening venues. All screenings will be free and open to the public.