Blind Cinema
Please note: This event took place in May 2016
Britt Hatzius as part of Mayfest
In the darkness of a cinema, the audience sits blindfolded. Behind each row of audience members is a row of children who, in hushed voices, describe a film only they can see. Accompanied by a soundtrack, the whispered descriptions are a fragile, fragmentary and courageous attempt by the children to make sense of what they see projected on the screen.
Based on a form of audio description, Blind Cinema is an experience where the act of watching a film becomes a shared investment: a collaborative and imaginative act between seeing children and blinded adults. It embraces the difficulty of finding the right words, of trying to hold onto the unstable images created in the mind's eye.
Blind Cinema leaves the illusory reality of cinema and re-enters the vivid images of the imagination.