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Emotions shared between whisperers and visually impaired moviegoers
Let me tell you: A volunteer whispers to a blind woman during the Blind Date Cinema at Paviliun 18 in South Jakarta, on Jan
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et me tell you: A volunteer whispers to a blind woman during the Blind Date Cinema at Paviliun 18 in South Jakarta, on Jan. 14, 2018. A similar event was held on Sunday at a shopping mall in Central Jakarta by crowdfunding platform KitaBisa. (JP/Seto Wardhana)
As soon as the lights went out at a theater in the CGV Cinema at FX Sudirman Mall in Gelora, Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta, and the movie started playing on the screen, Ersha Derystia, 24, began to explain what she saw to her visually impaired partner: She had volunteered to become a whisperer.
The theater room filled with the buzzing sound of dozens of whisperers describing a movie entitled Nanti Kita Cerita Tentang Hari Ini (One Day We’ll Talk About Today) to about 40 blind and visually impaired people invited to the Nonton Bareng Teman Netra (Watching Movies with Visually Impaired Friends) event held on Jan. 12, which was initiated by crowdfunding platform KitaBisa.
Ersha said since it was her first time volunteering as a whisperer, she was anxious in the beginning. However, after seeing her partner shed tears at one point of the movie, she knew that she was doing a pretty good job at describing the movie.
“It was a totally new experience for me, but my partner said I did a great job. It made me very happy, knowing that I had done a good deed for them,” she said. “I definitely will join future events as a whisperer for them.”
Ersha revealed that she was asked to join the event after donating in one of KitaBisa’s campaigns about a month ago.
She said people from KitaBisa contacted her via a WhatsApp call and invited her to become a whisperer for the Jan. 12 event.
“Initially, I hesitated because I did not have any experience whatsoever being a whisperer.”
KitaBisa spokesperson Farah Devana said they wanted to invite the donators of its campaigns to become whisperers for the visually impaired people, regardless of their experience.
“We want to tackle the myth that blind people cannot enjoy a movie. There are many things we [people with sight] can do that they can do as well and that can be very empowering,” Farah said.
“That is the purpose of this event: to show society how capable people with visual impairments are.”
The event on Jan. 12 was the second of its kind held by KitaBisa. The initial event took place in 2019.
In the near future, Farah said they wanted to invite other impaired people to join similar events.
“We are not certain what kind of event we will create, but we will make sure to invite other impaired people to deliver similar messages to society,” she continued.
Meanwhile, Heru, a 32-year-old teacher from Pembina School for the Disabled in Lebak Bulus, Cilandak, South Jakarta, who is visually impaired, said both he and his whisperer shed tears during the movie.
It was his second time watching a movie assisted by a whisperer.
After watching movies with different whisperers, he said he enjoyed both experiences, adding that aside from the whisperer’s description of the story, the characters' emotions and the ambience, he also utilized other senses and imagined every detail of the story through the sound that the movie produces.
Heru said he could relate his daily activities as a teacher with the work of a whisperer.
“I teach computers to high school students and the English language to elementary students. It’s not easy to be able to describe the topics and discussion very thoroughly to my students,” Heru told The Jakarta Post.
“Whisperers’ work like that when watching a movie with us. As we watch movies together, I also learn new things about describing matters from them. In the end, we all learn something.”(hpw)
