The Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) joined forces with SM Cares and other partner agencies (Deaf Blind Support Philippines, AKAP Pinoy, Philippine Blind Union, National Council on Disability Affairs, and Philippine Foundation for the Rehabilitation of the Disabled) to hold an audience-empowering event dubbed as Special Movie Screening for the Blind and Deaf.
The special movie screening took place at Premiere Cinema, SM Mall of Asia on Sept. 20 and was attended by more than 900 participants, mostly students from the Philippine School for the Blind and Philippine School for the Deaf and members of Resources for the Blind.
The event brought together MTRCB Chairperson Atty. Eugenio “Toto” Villareal, President of SM Supermalls Annie Garcia, Vice-President of SM Lifestyle Entertainment Inc. (SMLEI) Edwin Nava, President of Deaf Blind Support Philippines Edgardo “Bong” Garcia, and Director of SM Cares Program on PWDs Engineer Bien Mateo. Also present were MTRCB Executive Director Atty. Ann Marie Nemenzo as well as MTRCB Board Members Atty. Noel Del Prado and Bibeth Orteza Siguion-Reyna.
The participants, many of whom were accompanied by family members and teachers, enjoyed the animated film, Frozen, which was presented with both closed captioning and audio descriptive features. Both the hearing-impaired and the blind were thus treated to an inclusive cinema experience. Key visual elements were supported by detailed audio narration, while sound was mirrored by text lines of both dialogue and scene description.
Chairperson Toto emphasized in his message that through this special event, the second in three years, our blind and hearing-impaired brothers and sisters are given equal opportunity and access to media content. The initiative, he added comes at the right time due to the recent passage of the closed captioning law for television championed by former MTRCB Chairperson and now Senator Grace Poe. While it is now in the process of drafting the implementing rules and regulations for the said law, the MTRCB looks forward to more legislative innovations in the near future such as requiring closed captioning for cinema and video as well as extending descriptive audio, when economically feasible, to television and optical media materials.
The film screening is simultaneous with two other SM Cinemas: SM City Clark and SM City Bacoor.