Whispering is a big no-no in regular cinemas, especially during the quiet scenes. The moment you make even a tiny peep, other viewers will stare at you.
But there actually exists a Whispering Cinema that allow you to talk to the person next to you!
There is a programme called the Whispering Cinema (Bioskop Bisik) in Jakarta, Indonesia, where it is the first cinema to encourage talking.
It is founded by Think.Web, a digital agency that has been promoting Whispering Cinema for almost two years ever since the programme started in the year 2015.
The way the cinema works is a volunteer will describe the scenes to a person with vision disabilities. The movies showed are silent movies.
Of course, each disabled person will be paired up with a volunteer so that the story can be translated better.
Image via majalah feature indonesia
One of the viewers, M. Reza Akbar who became blind due to Retinal Vascular Occlusion, where the blood vessels in the eyes erupted, said that he enjoyed the movie experience.
“This experience is fruitful as I’m able to watch movies just like other normal people in the cinemas.”
Image via Twitter
Volunteer Resti, who m participated in the Whispering Cinema programme for a few times now, said:
“When I first started as a volunteer, I did something funny. I would forget to whisper the movie scenes (to the disabled person) and in the end, I watched the whole movie on my own instead.
“Then, I just made the scenes up and told my partner.”
Image via Our Better World
Co-CEO of Think.Web, Ramya Prajna Sahisnu explained that the main purpose of initiating the programme is to allow the blinds to enjoy each and every detail of the film through oral descriptions.
This is because there are no such special services for them in regular cinemas.
Image via detikHot
Ramya also hopes that it will build social awareness especially for those with vision disabilities as many people do not understand the world of blindness.
Hence, Ramya wishes that through this programme, we can care for people with blindness as much as we do for normal people.
Besides, the Whispering Cinema also caters to children too!
Image via bioskopbisik.com
Everyone in this world is the same. Even though we have some flaws or disabilities, it does’t mean that we should miss out on doing things that ‘normal’ people do.
Although this programme is not held in Malaysia, we still can show our love and care by giving support to their official Facebook page. You check out their official website too.
Written by: Chan Suet Yee
