Movies catering to deaf audiences

~ Some theaters are offering open-captioned movies for people who are deaf or have partial hearing loss.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Linda and Mike Cheek and three of their children enjoyed a movie at Campbell 16 Cinema recently, watching "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" as a family.

A normal occurrence for many Springfield families, trips to the movie theater have been rare for the Cheeks. Linda and Mike have three deaf sons. For their family, going to the movies isn't much fun because Alan, Michael and Sean can't hear the film.

It's tough for the boys to pick up on plot lines and off-screen action. Dialogue is lost. Action movies are better because they're heavy on visual elements. More often than not, the experience is incomplete and often frustrating, say movie fans who are deaf.

"All the hearing people know what's going on," says SadŽ Lopez, 20, who is a close family friend of the Cheeks and came with them. "Us deaf people, we have to guess or ask hearing people what's going on."

Not any more. In mid-February, Campbell 16 began showing open-captioned movies for people who are deaf and have partial hearing loss. Open captions appear on the screen like subtitles on foreign films.

More open-captioned films are on their way, including "Brokeback Mountain," "Eight Below" and "The Shaggy Dog."

Kelly Hoskins of St. Louis-based Wehrenberg Theaters, which owns Campbell 16, says open- captioned movies have come to Springfield because the local deaf community asked for it. Hoskins said Wehrenberg has shown open-captioned films in St. Louis theaters regularly for about seven years, but they've been shown only occasionally here.

The past response "was OK, but I think until we got the community to request it, that's when it became important," Hoskins says.

The theater experience

DeLinda Belanger's reaction is, "Finally!" She was at the theater with her daughter Courtney. Belanger is a self-described "movie freak" who loves watching closed-captioned films on DVD, even if she can't see them until months after their big-screen release. Closed-caption films have writing that appears on a black background, which also is used on television.

Waiting for DVDs is a small inconvenience compared to the frustration of not being able to enjoy a children's film with Courtney at the theater.

Says Courtney: "I almost never get to see a movie with my mom."

Springfield is lagging behind many other communities when it comes to services for the deaf and hard of hearing, members of that community say. Going to a movie may not be essential to everyday life, but it's welcome and long-needed.

In October, members of Springfield's deaf community, including the Cheek and McGranahan families, started the Deaf Awareness Group of Springfield. The group seeks to improve services for deaf people in the city and raise awareness about deaf culture in the Ozarks.

The group's requests helped convince Wehrenberg that open-captioned movies were needed here, and its contacts have helped get the word out among the deaf community. More than 130 people attended the four open-captioned screenings in February, Linda Cheek says.

The movies are shown about every other week on Sunday afternoon and Monday night. The schedule is subject to change because the theater has to wait for the movie prints.

As deaf moviegoers and their friends and family come through the lobby at Campbell 16, they sign to one another, smiling and laughing. The movie offered a chance to get together, which some say is much more important than watching the movie itself.

"It's very important because there are so many deaf families who stay at home -- who are stuck at home," Belanger says. "It's a wonderful opportunity for deaf families to be out and involved in the community."

Children especially benefit from being around other members of the deaf community, their parents and deaf adults say. They get a chance to use sign language in conversational situations, meet other deaf kids and see deaf families doing the same kinds of things any other family would do.

Cynthia McInvale and her family drove an hour from tiny Pittsburg near Pomme de Terre Lake to watch "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe." She says it was worth the trip for her 11-year-old daughter Nicole, who she says has been somewhat isolated from deaf culture.

"The really important thing is for her to be around other deaf kids," McInvale says.

Nicole is a bit shy, saying only that she's excited to be at the movies because she doesn't get to go often. Watching DVDs at home is fun, deaf families say, but there's something about going to the movies.

"It's better here," Lopez says of the theater. "It's more fun here."