On June 25, at an offline guided tour event for the benefit of the people at the 30th Shanghai TV Festival, a group of special audiences arrived in the front row of the auditorium. Several guide dogs lay quietly at the feet of their owners, accompanying them to watch the documentary "Wudake".
A guide dog watching a documentary with his owner
According to a reporter from The Paper, this event specially invited more than 70 people with visual and hearing impairments to the scene, where they watched the film together with the help of barrier-free equipment and services such as sign language translation, hearing-impaired subtitles, and wireless audio guides, and felt the charm of the architectural master Hudec.
Volunteers put on ear monitors for the audience
Sign language teacher
Accessible Interpretation Field Work
Looking at the packed audience, Chen Qing, the director of the documentary "Wudake", was deeply moved and choked up several times: "I have done many post-screening meet-and-greet sessions, but today's screening moved me the most."
Documentary director Chen Qing
A visually impaired person sitting next to the reporter said after the screening: "I grew up in Shanghai, and I have been to almost all of the buildings designed by Wu Daqian. But since I became blind, I have never been there again. Today, I was able to 'watch' an accessible movie and brought back the images in my memory!"
A hearing-impaired person, also an architect, came to the front desk and used sign language to express his feelings after watching "Hudec"
The Shanghai TV Festival "Magnolia Fragrance" offline benefit-oriented guided tour event hosted by BesTV - the barrier-free screening of "Wudake" was held at the Art Theater of the China Art Palace. In addition to the audience, the theater corridors were also filled with volunteers. During the intermission, volunteers would escort the visually impaired audience to and from the toilet.
Volunteers standing in the aisle
The reporter observed that not only were there commentators and sign language teachers in the communication session, but the entire film was also adjusted to a hearing-impaired version with subtitles. The subtitles would provide timely text reminders based on the content of the film, so that hearing-impaired audiences could better integrate into the artistic atmosphere of the entire film.
"Wudake" is produced by the Central News Documentary Film Studio (Group). The film consists of five episodes, each 30 minutes long. Three of them were played on the day of the event.
The documentary takes the legendary experience of the Slovak-Hungarian architect Hudec in Shanghai as the starting point, and deeply explores his life and work in Shanghai. Through his story, the documentary shows the communication and integration of people of different ethnic groups and cultures in Shanghai, an international city. During the 29 years that Hudec lived in Shanghai, he designed more than 100 single buildings, including the International Hotel, the Grand Cinema, the Wukang Building and other "Internet celebrity" check-in spots... These architectural works have not only become landmarks of Shanghai, but also symbols of the integration of different cultures.
Talking about his understanding of the protagonist, Director Chen Qing said with emotion: "Faced with the huge changes in the world at that time, Wu Daqian always adhered to his own principles and professionalism. Even when he was in the most difficult time, building the smallest house, he still adhered to the professional instinct and ethics of an architect. These are what touched me."
Director Chen Qing interacts with the audience after the screening
In Chen Qing's view, the buildings designed by Wu Daqian combine a free and flexible design style with professional and practical characteristics, and also reflect Shanghai's diverse, inclusive and open urban character.
"Today's event screened documentaries in a special barrier-free and integrated way. I am very grateful to the organizers for bringing such a documentary full of Shanghai's humanistic feelings to the hearing and visually impaired group," she said.
"Magnolia Fragrance" offline benefit-for-the-people guided tour event "Wudake" barrier-free special screening
In 2025, the Shanghai TV Festival stands at the critical historical node of "30 Years of Encouragement", and BesTV also celebrates its 20th anniversary. At the intersection of "20" and "30", BesTV has served as the official designated TV new media partner and online screening platform of the Shanghai TV Festival for the seventh consecutive time, and once again hosted the "Fragrant Magnolia" offline benefit guided tour event with barrier-free screenings.
"Hudec" is currently available in Chinese, English, French and Spanish versions. This year, BesTV has specially made it into a barrier-free audio-visual version, including a visually impaired version and a hearing-impaired version, which will be launched on BesTV's online screening platform in the future, allowing more visually and hearing-impaired people to learn about the wonderful story of this legendary architect through the big screen of TV.
It is reported that in addition to this special barrier-free offline screening event, Shanghai IPTV also updated and launched 18 barrier-free audio-visual contents during the Shanghai TV Festival, allowing users with hearing and visual impairments to enjoy excellent film and television works at home at the same time.
In recent years, BesTV has joined hands with SMG's barrier-free film charity studio to create a high-quality barrier-free audio-visual TV service platform, which supports screen reading and voice control functions, adds floating subtitles, and assists hearing-impaired users to better control and use the TV. According to relevant persons in charge, it is currently possible to "automatically generate screen description text according to the length of the dialogue gap, and after manual calibration, it can generate multi-emotional reading audio with one click, more efficiently produce barrier-free content, and continuously enrich the supply of barrier-free programs."
Schematic diagram of BesTV's barrier-free audio-visual large-screen service area
At the end of the event, Qu Dapeng, the founder of the SMG barrier-free film public welfare commentary team, took the stage to speak: "Today we use sound to open eyes, play sound in sign language, and present an accessible version of the documentary "Wu Daqian" to friends with hearing and visual impairments. Mr. Wu Daqian shaped the urban texture of Shanghai, and his architecture is solidified history. However, for some groups, there are obstacles to "seeing" and "hearing" this heritage. This is the meaning of our work - to depict light and shadow with sound, to convey sound with pictures, and to convey the soul and culture of architecture. We believe that everyone has the right to feel the urban context equally. This event is not just a simple screening, but also a respect and empowerment for the cultural rights of the hearing and visually impaired group. I hope that our efforts can make more hearts feel the legend and warmth of this city."
