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127-1152: Media Access Australia (M.A.A.) is an Australian charitable organization that works to improve digital accessibility for people with disabilities. The organization also offers a university-accredited online degree called the Professional Certificate in Web Accessibility (P.C.W.A.), which is taught in six-week modules. M.A.A. provides information about technological solutions, such as audio description and captioning , to make audio-visual media, including streaming services , TV , cinema , DVDs and new media , accessible to people with disabilities. M.A.A supports improvements in media access in Australia towards international best practice by identifying mainstream technological solutions and cost-effective ways to promote and implement them. M.A.A. works with consumer organizations ; Government and industry in Australia and internationally. Media Access Australia, originally known as

254-727: A weighted average score of 95 out of 100, based on 30 critics. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a rare average grade of "A+" on an A+ to F scale. Stephen Schiff of The New Yorker called it the best historical drama about the Holocaust, a film that "will take its place in cultural history and remain there." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film four stars out of four and described it as Spielberg's best, "brilliantly acted, written, directed, and seen." Ebert named it one of his ten favorite films of 1993. Terrence Rafferty , also with The New Yorker , admired

381-521: A "deformation" of historical truth. "Fiction is a transgression, I am deeply convinced that there is a ban on depiction [of the Holocaust]", he said. Lanzmann also criticized Spielberg for viewing the Holocaust through the eyes of a German, saying "it is the world in reverse". He said: "I sincerely thought that there was a time before Shoah , and a time after Shoah , and that after Shoah certain things could no longer be done. Spielberg did them anyway." At

508-530: A $ 22 million budget. It was nominated for twelve awards at the 66th Academy Awards , and won seven, including Best Picture , Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay . The film won numerous other awards, including seven BAFTAs and three Golden Globes . In 2007, the American Film Institute ranked Schindler's List 8th on its list of the 100 greatest American films . The film was deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" by

635-492: A 1994 Village Voice symposium about the film, historian Annette Insdorf described how her mother, a survivor of three concentration camps, felt gratitude that the Holocaust story was finally being told in a major film that would be widely viewed. Hungarian Jewish author Imre Kertész , a Holocaust survivor, feels it is impossible for life in a Nazi concentration camp to be accurately portrayed by anyone who did not experience it first-hand. While commending Spielberg for bringing

762-507: A Spanish SAP dub for Jane the Virgin through the series' entire run, and audio description is available and passed through for their Saturday morning One Magnificent Morning E/I block, which is done for all of the blocks produced for the major broadcast networks by Litton Entertainment . In 2019, the first primetime series with DVS for the network, In the Dark (which has a blind protagonist),

889-502: A brawl with an elderly German-speaking businessman who insulted the Israeli actor Michael Schneider. Nonetheless, Spielberg said that, at Passover , "all the German actors showed up. They put on yarmulkes and opened up Haggadas , and the Israeli actors moved right next to them and began explaining it to them. And this family of actors sat around and race and culture were just left behind." I

1016-465: A chance meeting with Pfefferberg in Los Angeles in 1980. MCA president Sid Sheinberg sent director Steven Spielberg a New York Times review of the book. Spielberg, astounded by Schindler's story, jokingly asked if it was true. "I was drawn to it because of the paradoxical nature of the character," he said. "What would drive a man like this to suddenly take everything he had earned and put it all in

1143-553: A factory to produce enamelware . Schindler hires Itzhak Stern , a Jewish official with contacts among black marketeers and the Jewish business community; he handles administration and helps Schindler arrange financing. Stern ensures that as many Jewish workers as possible were deemed essential to the German war effort to prevent them from being taken by the SS to concentration camps or killed. Meanwhile, Schindler maintains friendly relations with

1270-500: A family observing Shabbat . Spielberg said that "to start the film with the candles being lit ... would be a rich bookend, to start the film with a normal Shabbat service before the juggernaut against the Jews begins". When the color fades out in the film's opening moments, it gives way to a world in which smoke comes to symbolize bodies being burnt at Auschwitz. Only at the end, when Schindler allows his workers to hold Shabbat services, do

1397-519: A film about the Schindlerjuden (Schindler Jews) were proposed as early as 1963. Poldek Pfefferberg , one of the Schindlerjuden , made it his life's mission to tell Schindler's story. Spielberg became interested when executive Sidney Sheinberg sent him a book review of Schindler's Ark . Universal Pictures bought the rights to the novel, but Spielberg, unsure if he was ready to make a film about

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1524-467: A good view of the performance. They make their description which is fed to a small radio transmitter. In 2006, on the occasion of the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany , a project was launched with the aim of making the live commentary of a match available to blind and visually impaired football fans in the stadium. The project was very well-received and had great success. In 2008, audio description in football

1651-604: A history of developing closed captioning of programs for hearing-impaired viewers, WGBH considered the viability of using the new audio channel for narrated descriptions of key visual elements, much like those being done for live theatre in Washington, D.C. , by Margaret Pfanstiehl, who had been experimenting with television description as part of her Washington Ear radio reading service. After reviewing and conducting various studies, which found that blind and visually impaired people were consuming more television than ever but finding

1778-542: A major United States producer of audio description. DVS often is used to describe the product itself. In 1985, PBS member television station WGBH-TV in Boston , Massachusetts , began investigating uses for the new technology of stereophonic television broadcasting , particularly multichannel television sound (MTS), which allowed for a third audio channel, called the Secondary Audio Program ( SAP ). With

1905-522: A mounted Soviet officer announces that they have been liberated but warns them not to go east because "they hate you there". The Jews then walk into the countryside. An epilogue reveals that Göth was convicted of crimes against humanity and executed via hanging , while Schindler's marriage and businesses failed following the war. In the present, many of the surviving Schindlerjuden and the actors portraying them visit Schindler's grave and place stones on its marker (a traditional Jewish sign of respect for

2032-627: A nearby abandoned quarry, as modern high rise apartments were visible from the site of the original camp. Interior shots of the enamelware factory in Kraków were filmed at a similar facility in Olkusz , while exterior shots and the scenes on the factory stairs were filmed at the actual factory. The production received permission from Polish authorities to film on the grounds of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum , but objections to filming within

2159-431: A safety net." This matured Spielberg, who felt that in the past he had always been paying tribute to directors such as Cecil B. DeMille or David Lean . Spielberg decided to use black and white to match the feel of documentary footage of the era. Cinematographer Janusz Kamiński compared the effect to German Expressionism and Italian neorealism . Kamiński said that he wanted to give the impression of timelessness to

2286-568: A salary for the film, calling it " blood money ", and believed it would fail. In 1983, Keneally was hired to adapt his book, and he turned in a 220-page script. His adaptation focused on Schindler's numerous relationships, and Keneally admitted he did not compress the story enough. Spielberg hired Kurt Luedtke , who had adapted the screenplay of Out of Africa , to write the next draft. Luedtke gave up almost four years later, as he found Schindler's change of heart too unbelievable. During his time as director, Scorsese hired Steven Zaillian to write

2413-469: A scene in that film when we don't know if there's gas or water coming out in the showers in the camp. You can only do something like that with a naive audience like in the United States. It's not an appropriate use of the form. Spielberg meant well – but it was dumb." Claude Lanzmann , the director of the nine-hour Holocaust documentary Shoah (1985), called Schindler's List a "kitschy melodrama" and

2540-481: A script. When he was handed back the project, Spielberg found Zaillian's 115-page draft too short, and asked him to extend it to 195 pages. Spielberg wanted more focus on the Jews in the story, and he wanted Schindler's transition to be gradual and ambiguous instead of a sudden breakthrough or epiphany. He also extended the ghetto liquidation sequence, as he "felt very strongly that the sequence had to be almost unwatchable." Liam Neeson auditioned as Schindler early on in

2667-402: A sort normally reserved for other survivors. Albert L. Lewis , Spielberg's childhood rabbi and teacher, described the movie as "Steven's gift to his mother, to his people, and in a sense to himself. Now he is a full human being." The film grossed $ 96.1 million ($ 203 million in 2023 dollars) in the United States and Canada and over $ 321.2 million worldwide. In Germany, the film

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2794-595: A sub-camp at his factory. As the Germans begin losing the war, Göth is ordered to ship the remaining Jews at Płaszów to Auschwitz concentration camp . Schindler asks Göth for permission to move his workers to a munitions factory he plans to build in Brünnlitz near his hometown of Zwittau . Göth reluctantly agrees but charges a huge bribe. Schindler and Stern prepare a list of people to be transferred to Brünnlitz instead of Auschwitz. The list eventually includes 1,100 names. As

2921-482: A tape of Schindler speaking, which Neeson studied to learn the correct intonations and pitch. Fiennes was cast as Amon Göth after Spielberg viewed his performances in A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia and Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights . Spielberg said of Fiennes' audition that "I saw sexual evil. It is all about subtlety: there were moments of kindness that would move across his eyes and then instantly run cold." Fiennes put on 28 pounds (13 kg) to play

3048-418: A white shirt." The length of descriptions and their placement by a producer into the program are largely dictated by what can fit in natural pauses in dialogue (other producers of description may have other priorities, such as synchronization with the timing of a described element's appearance, which differ from DVS's priority for detail). Once recorded, placed and mixed with a copy of the original soundtrack,

3175-446: Is based on the historical novel Schindler's Ark (1982) by Thomas Keneally . The film follows Oskar Schindler , a German industrialist who saved more than a thousand mostly Polish–Jewish refugees from the Holocaust by employing them in his factories during World War II . It stars Liam Neeson as Schindler, Ralph Fiennes as SS officer Amon Göth , and Ben Kingsley as Schindler's Jewish accountant Itzhak Stern . Ideas for

3302-547: Is being liquidated by the Nazis, the folk song Oyfn Pripetshik ( Yiddish : אויפֿן פּריפּעטשיק , 'On the Cooking Stove') is sung by a children's choir. The song was often sung by Spielberg's grandmother, Becky, to her grandchildren. The clarinet solos heard in the film were recorded by Klezmer virtuoso Giora Feidman . Williams won an Academy Award for Best Original Score for Schindler's List , his fifth win. Selections from

3429-511: Is described by the Media Access Group under existing contracts with Walt Disney Pictures . NBC and their associated cable networks, along with outside productions by Universal Television such as Brooklyn Nine-Nine and The Mindy Project , solely use CaptionMax for description services; Netflix also utilizes CaptionMax for their original series, while going per studio for acquired programming. Most scripted programming on Fox, except for

3556-400: Is occurring at the time and the plot as a whole. For example, in the opening credit sequence of the children's series Arthur on PBS, the description has been performed as follows: "Arthur is an 8-year-old aardvark. He wears round glasses with thick frames over his big eyes. He has two round ears on top of his oval-shaped head. He wears red sneakers and blue jeans, with a yellow sweater over

3683-606: Is profoundly affected. He particularly notices a young girl in a red coat who hides from the Nazis and later sees her body on a wagonload of corpses. Schindler is careful to maintain his friendship with Göth and continues to enjoy SS support, mostly through bribery. Göth brutalizes his Jewish maid Helen Hirsch and randomly shoots people from the balcony of his villa; the prisoners are in constant fear for their lives. As time passes, Schindler's focus shifts from making money to trying to save as many lives as possible. To better protect his workers, Schindler bribes Göth into allowing him to build

3810-404: Is received within 24 hours of its scheduled airing—provided that any future airings of the same program in prime-time contain descriptions. In addition, other licensed discretionary services would be expected to air at least four hours of DV programming per-week by the fourth year of their next license term. The Ofcom code on television access services requires broadcasters that have been on

3937-790: Is sponsored by the website's philanthropic arm Pornhub Cares. In the late-2010s, Procter & Gamble began to add descriptions to some of its television commercials , first in the United Kingdom, and later Spain and the United States. Under Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) rules, broadcast television stations and former Category A services that dedicated more than half of their programming to comedy, drama, or long-form documentary programs, were required to broadcast at least four hours of programming with audio descriptions (known in Canadian English as described video) per-week, with two hours of this "original" to

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4064-461: Is typically delivered via a secondary audio track. In North America, Second audio program (SAP) is typically used to deliver audio description by television broadcasters. To promote accessibility , some countries (such as Canada and the United States) have implemented requirements for broadcasters to air specific quotas of programming containing audio description. The transition to " talkies " in

4191-453: Is typically delivered via an alternate audio track, either as a separate language track containing the narration only (which, if the playback device is capable of doing so, is mixed with the primary audio track automatically, and can have separate volume settings), or on a secondary audio track pre-mixed with the primary track, such as a secondary audio program (SAP). Many video on demand (VOD) and streaming platforms host separate assets for

4318-487: The Berlin Wall , he worried that people were too accepting of intolerance, as they were in the 1930s. Sid Sheinberg greenlit the film on condition that Spielberg made Jurassic Park first. Spielberg later said, "He knew that once I had directed Schindler I wouldn't be able to do Jurassic Park ." The picture was assigned a small budget of $ 22 million, as Holocaust films are not usually profitable. Spielberg forwent

4445-504: The Library of Congress in 2004 and selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry . In Kraków during World War II , the Nazis force local Polish Jews into the overcrowded Kraków Ghetto . Oskar Schindler , a German Nazi Party member from Czechoslovakia , arrives in the city, hoping to make his fortune. He bribes Wehrmacht (German armed forces) and SS officials, acquiring

4572-641: The National Captioning Institute and CaptionMax have also begun to describe programs. Benefit Media, Inc., a subsidiary of DuArt Film and Video in New York City provides DVS services to USA Network . For the 2016 Summer Olympics , NBC is providing description of events during the network's primetime block. The 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 reinstates the FCC's involvement in providing rules for video description. Under

4699-563: The National Captioning Institute , Narrative Television Network, and others. In the UK Audio Description services were made available on the BBC and ITV after a collaborative project with industry partners. In 2000, the BBC voluntarily committed to providing descriptions for at least 20% of its programming annually. In practice, the BBC has often exceeded these targets. In 2009, BBC iPlayer became

4826-511: The New York Film Critics Circle were also won for Best Film , Best Supporting Actor , and Best Cinematographer . The Los Angeles Film Critics Association awarded the film for Best Film , Best Cinematography (tied with The Piano ), and Best Production Design. The film also won numerous other awards and nominations worldwide. In Malaysia , the film was initially banned. The Film Censorship Board of Malaysia wrote to

4953-451: The Olympic and Paralympic Games , and the royal wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton , among others. In April 2015, the subscription streaming service Netflix announced that it had added support for audio description, beginning with Daredevil —a series based on a comic book character who himself is blind, and would add descriptions to current and past original series on

5080-654: The Producers Guild of America Award for Best Theatrical Motion Picture with co-producers Branko Lustig and Gerald R. Molen. Steven Zaillian won the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay . The film also won the National Board of Review for Best Film , along with the National Society of Film Critics for Best Film , Best Director , Best Supporting Actor , and Best Cinematography . Awards from

5207-481: The 1985 documentary film Shoah , Spielberg decided not to plan the film with storyboards , and to shoot it like a documentary. Forty percent of the film was shot with handheld cameras, and the modest budget meant the film was shot quickly over seventy-two days. Spielberg felt that this gave the film "a spontaneity, an edge, and it also serves the subject." He filmed without using Steadicams , elevated shots, or zoom lenses , "everything that for me might be considered

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5334-460: The Americans. The workers give him a signed statement attesting to his role in saving Jewish lives and present him with a ring engraved with a Talmudic quotation: "Whoever saves one life saves the world entire". Schindler breaks down in tears, feeling he should have done more, and is comforted by the workers before he and his wife leave in their car. When the Schindlerjuden awaken the next morning,

5461-691: The Australian Caption Center (A.C.C.), was co-founded by Adam Salzer and Alexandra Hynes in 1982. In 2005, A.C.C. sold its commercial operations, including captioning services, to Red Bee Media . Audio description In museums or visual art exhibitions, audio described tours (or universally designed tours that include description or the augmentation of existing recorded programs on audio- or videotape), are used to provide access to visitors who are blind or have low vision. Docents or tour guides can be trained to employ audio description in their presentations. In film and television, description

5588-466: The DVS organization permanently in 1988. After national testing, more feedback, more development of description technique, and additional grants, DVS became a regular feature of selected PBS programming in 1990. Later, DVS became an available feature in some films and home videos, including DVDs. DVS describers watch a program and write a script describing visual elements which are important in understanding what

5715-469: The DVS track for syndication, substituting in the Spanish dubbing track on SAP to reach more viewers, though as many stations affiliated with "netlets" like The CW and MyNetworkTV are not under the video description provision, do not have SAP channels and thus, neither an audio description or Spanish dub track can be heard. In some markets where SAP is activated on affiliate stations though, The CW had provided

5842-684: The DVS track is then "laid back" to the master tape on a separate audio track (for broadcast on the SAP) or to its own DVS master (for home video). For feature films, the descriptions are not mixed with the soundtrack, but kept separate as part of a DTS soundtrack. When the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) started establishing various requirements for broadcasters in larger markets to improve their accessibility to audiences with hearing and vision impairments, DVS branched out to non-PBS programming, and soon description could be heard on

5969-502: The Holocaust as possible, to save their stories. He continues to finance that work. Spielberg used proceeds from the film to finance several related documentaries , including Anne Frank Remembered (1995), The Lost Children of Berlin (1996), and The Last Days (1998). Schindler's List received acclaim from both film critics and audiences, with Americans such as talk show host Oprah Winfrey and President Bill Clinton urging others to see it. World leaders in many countries saw

6096-458: The Holocaust, tried to pass the project to several directors before deciding to direct it himself. Principal photography took place in Kraków , Poland, over 72 days in 1993. Spielberg shot in black-and-white and approached the film as a documentary. Cinematographer Janusz Kamiński wanted to create a sense of timelessness. John Williams composed the score, and violinist Itzhak Perlman performed

6223-454: The Jewish activity seen in the ghetto consists of financial transactions such as lending money, trading on the black market, or hiding wealth, thus perpetuating a stereotypical view of Jewish life. Horowitz notes that while the depiction of women in the film accurately reflects Nazi ideology, the low status of women and the link between violence and sexuality is not explored further. History professor Omer Bartov of Brown University notes that

6350-405: The Jewish people being sacrificed in the horror of the Holocaust". The girl was portrayed by Oliwia Dąbrowska, three years old at the time of filming. Spielberg asked Dąbrowska not to watch the film until she was eighteen, but she watched it when she was eleven, and says she was "horrified". Upon seeing the film again as an adult, she was proud of the role she played. Roma Ligocka , who says she

6477-563: The Jewish workers are transported by train to Brünnlitz, the women and girls are mistakenly redirected to Auschwitz-Birkenau; Schindler bribes Rudolf Höss , the commandant of Auschwitz, for their release. At the new factory, Schindler forbids the SS guards from entering the production area without permission and encourages the Jews to observe the Sabbath . Over the next seven months, he spends his fortune bribing Nazi officials and buying shell casings from other companies. Due to Schindler's machinations,

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6604-604: The Jews for slave labor or exterminating them outright. Water is seen as giving deliverance by Alan Mintz, Holocaust Studies professor at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York. He notes its presence in the scene where Schindler arranges for a Holocaust train loaded with victims awaiting transport to be hosed down, and the scene in Auschwitz, where the women are given an actual shower instead of receiving

6731-501: The Maiden . Martin Scorsese, who passed the film back to Spielberg and stated his version had different ideas from the final film including a different ending, would later comment "I admired the film greatly." The success of Schindler's List led filmmaker Stanley Kubrick to abandon his own Holocaust project, Aryan Papers , which would have been about a Jewish boy and his aunt who survive

6858-455: The Media Access Group. Some shows have lost their DVS during their original network runs due to outside factors or complications. For instance, American Dad! had a two-season interregnum in part of season 12 and all of season 13 without any DVS service during its move from Fox to TBS in late 2014, before it returned in November 2016 for its fourteenth season. The Mindy Project lost DVS at

6985-454: The Nazis and enjoys his new wealth and status as an industrialist. SS- Untersturmführer (second lieutenant) Amon Göth arrives in Kraków to oversee construction of the Płaszów concentration camp . When the camp is ready, he orders the ghetto liquidated: two thousand Jews are transported to Płaszów, and two thousand others are killed in the streets by the SS. Schindler witnesses the massacre and

7112-716: The SAP for shows such as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and The Simpsons . However, a federal court ruled in 2002 that the Federal Communications Commission had exceeded its jurisdiction by requiring broadcasters in the top 25 markets to carry video description. Since that time, the amount of new DVS television programming in the United States declined, as did access to information regarding upcoming described programming, while broadcasters like ABC and Fox instead decided to devote their SAP channels to Spanish language dubbing tracks of their shows rather than DVS due to

7239-550: The activity problematic (often relying on sighted family and friends to describe for them), WGBH consulted more closely with Pfanstiehl and her husband, Cody, and then conducted its first tests of DVS in Boston in 1986. These tests (broadcasting to local groups of people of various ages and visual impairments) and further study were successful enough to merit a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to complete plans to establish

7366-404: The actor's star quality would not overpower the character. Neeson felt Schindler enjoyed outsmarting the Nazis, who regarded him as somewhat naïve. "They don't quite take him seriously, and he used that to full effect." To help him prepare for the role, Spielberg showed Neeson film clips of Time Warner CEO Steve Ross , who had a charisma that Spielberg compared to Schindler's. He also located

7493-571: The actual death camp were raised by the World Jewish Congress . To avoid filming inside the actual death camp, the film crew constructed a replica of a portion of the camp just outside the entrance of Birkenau. There were some antisemitic incidents. A woman who encountered Fiennes in his Nazi uniform told him: "The Germans were charming people. They didn't kill anybody who didn't deserve it." Antisemitic symbols were scrawled on billboards near shooting locations, while Kingsley nearly entered

7620-569: The aforementioned genres. The requirement that a quota of DV programming be "original" to the network was also dropped. Citing the possibility that not enough imported U.S. programming may be supplied with descriptions for their first airing, and the burden this may place on their ability to carry these programs, the CRTC granted an exception to Bell Media , Corus Entertainment , and Rogers Media , along with minor companies DHX Media , CBC , Blue Ant Media , V , and TVA Group , for foreign programming that

7747-412: The air for at least five years to broadcast at least 10% of their programming with descriptions. Scrutiny has applied even to ESPN UK —a sports channel—which was fined £120,000 by Ofcom for not meeting an AD quota in 2012. The regulator rejected an argument by ESPN that AD was redundant to commentary , as it is "not provided with the needs of the visually impaired in mind". Initially, audio description

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7874-599: The alternate audio. ABC, along with sister network Disney Channel has since added audio description to some of their programming (with a commensurate decline in Spanish-dubbed programming, though the ATSC standard allows more audio channels), but does not contract any of their shows to be described by the Media Access Group, instead going with commercial providers CaptionMax and Audio Eyes . Some special programming such as Toy Story of Terror! and Toy Story That Time Forgot

8001-557: The audience. In the 1940s and 1950s, Radio Nacional de España aired live audio simulcasts of films from cinemas with descriptions, framing these as a form of radio drama before the advent of television. In the 1980s, the Media Access Group of U.S. public television station WGBH-TV (which had already gained notability for their involvement in developing closed captioning ) developed an implementation of audio description for television programming via second audio program (SAP), which it branded as "Descriptive Video Service" (DVS). It

8128-429: The audio-described media, with the soundtrack pre-mixed. Despite AD typically being presented as something that can be enabled (as with subtitles ), users can encounter problems when trying to turn AD on or off because the underlying media version they require is unavailable. In movie theaters, audio description can be heard using DVS Theatrical and similar systems (including DTS-CSS and Dolby Screentalk). Users listen to

8255-422: The average German rationalized their knowledge of or participation in the Holocaust. Author Jason Epstein commented that the movie gives the false impression that if people were smart enough or lucky enough, they could survive the Holocaust. Spielberg responded to criticism that Schindler's breakdown as he says farewell is too maudlin and even out of character by pointing out that the scene is needed to drive home

8382-440: The channel per-week. These programs must have been drawn from children's, comedy, drama, long-form documentaries, general entertainment and human interest, reality , or variety genres. Broadcasters must also promote the availability of DV programming, including airing a standard audiovisual bumper and logo at the beginning of all programs offering description (the CRTC officially recommends that this announcement be repeated after

8509-403: The coat. John Williams, who frequently collaborates with Spielberg, composed the score for Schindler's List . The composer was amazed by the film, and felt it would be too challenging. He said to Spielberg, "You need a better composer than I am for this film." Spielberg responded, "I know. But they're all dead!" Itzhak Perlman performs the theme on the violin. In the scene where the ghetto

8636-651: The conclusion of each commercial break, but this is not typically practiced). All television providers are also required to carry AMI-tv (formerly The Accessible Channel), a specialty channel that broadcasts all programming with descriptions on the primary audio track. On March 26, 2015, the CRTC announced that beginning September 1, 2019, most broadcast and specialty networks owned by vertically integrated conglomerates, as well as any channel previously subject to license conditions specifying minimums for DV, are required to supply described video for any prime-time programming (7:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.) that falls within

8763-421: The dead), after which Liam Neeson lays two roses. Poldek Pfefferberg, one of the Schindlerjuden , made it his life's mission to tell the story of his savior. Pfefferberg attempted to produce a biopic of Oskar Schindler with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) in 1963, with Howard Koch writing, but the deal fell through. In 1982, Thomas Keneally published his historical novel Schindler's Ark , which he wrote after

8890-488: The description on a wireless headset . Audio description is stored in the Digital Cinema Package as "Visually Impaired-Native" (VI-N) audio on Sound Track channel 8. In live theaters, patrons also receive the description via a wireless device, a discreet monaural receiver. However, the description is provided live by describers located in a booth acoustically insulated from the audience, but from where they have

9017-411: The edges of respectability, becomes a father figure responsible for saving the lives of more than a thousand people. While the film is shot primarily in black and white, a red coat is used to distinguish a little girl in the scene depicting the liquidation of the Kraków ghetto. Later in the film, Schindler sees her exhumed dead body, recognizable only by the red coat she is still wearing. Spielberg said

9144-732: The expected gassing. Schindler's List opened in theatres on December 15, 1993, in the United States and December 25 in Canada. Its premiere in Germany was on March 1, 1994. Its U.S. network television premiere was on NBC on February 23, 1997. Shown uncut and without commercials, it ranked No. 3 for the week with a 20.9/31 rating/share, the highest Nielsen rating for any film since NBC's broadcast of Jurassic Park in May 1995. The film aired on public television in Israel on Holocaust Memorial Day in 1998. The film

9271-408: The factory produces no usable armaments. He runs out of money in 1945, just as Germany surrenders. As a Nazi Party member and war profiteer, Schindler must flee the advancing Red Army to avoid capture. The SS guards at the factory have been ordered to kill the Jewish workforce, but Schindler persuades them not to do so. Bidding farewell to his workers, he prepares to head west, hoping to surrender to

9398-530: The fall of 2017). Netflix committed in April 2015 to begin audio description of their original series, starting with Daredevil (which features a blind protagonist with other heightened senses) and the remainder of their original programming in the next few months, making their goal in that timeframe, along with providing the DVS tracks of existing series in their library; however some platforms (mainly older versions for devices that are now unsupported) do not provide

9525-453: The film as a classic psychopath . Fiennes looked so much like Göth in costume that when Mila Pfefferberg met him, she trembled with fear. The character of Itzhak Stern (played by Ben Kingsley) is a composite of the accountant Stern, factory manager Abraham Bankier , and Göth's personal secretary, Mietek Pemper . The character serves as Schindler's alter ego and conscience. Dustin Hoffman

9652-400: The film has done much to increase Holocaust remembrance and awareness as the remaining survivors pass away, severing the last living links with the catastrophe. The film's release in Germany led to widespread discussion about why most Germans did not do more to help. Criticism of the film also appeared, mostly from academia rather than the popular press. Sara Horowitz points out that much of

9779-540: The film to make a profit out of a tragedy while Schindler's wife, Emilie Schindler , lived in poverty in Argentina . Keneally disputed claims that she was never paid for her contributions, "not least because I had recently sent Emilie a check myself." He also confirmed with Spielberg's office that payment had been sent from there. Filmmaker Michael Haneke criticized the sequence in which Schindler's women are accidentally sent off to Auschwitz and herded into showers: "There's

9906-402: The film's "narrative boldness, visual audacity, and emotional directness." He noted the performances of Neeson, Fiennes, Kingsley, and Davidtz as warranting special praise, and calls the scene in the shower at Auschwitz "the most terrifying sequence ever filmed." In the 2013 edition of his Movie and Video Guide , Leonard Maltin awarded the picture a four-out-of-four-star rating; he described

10033-586: The film's development. He was cast in December 1992 after Spielberg saw him perform in Anna Christie on Broadway . Warren Beatty participated in a script reading, but Spielberg was concerned that he could not disguise his accent and that he would bring "movie star baggage". Kevin Costner and Mel Gibson expressed interest in portraying Schindler, but Spielberg preferred to cast the relatively unknown Neeson so that

10160-481: The film, Keneally's novel, the film's soundtrack on CD , a senitype, and a photo booklet titled Schindler's List: Images of the Steven Spielberg Film , all housed in a plexiglass case. The laserdisc gift set was a limited edition that included the soundtrack, the original novel, and an exclusive photo booklet. As part of its 20th anniversary, the film was released on Blu-ray Disc on March 5, 2013. The film

10287-406: The film, and some met personally with Spielberg. On Rotten Tomatoes , the film has received an approval rating of 98% based on 137 reviews, with an average rating of 9.20/10. The website's critical consensus reads, " Schindler's List blends the abject horror of the Holocaust with Steven Spielberg's signature tender humanism to create the director's dramatic masterpiece." Metacritic gave the film

10414-406: The film, so the audience would "not have a sense of when it was made". Universal chairman Tom Pollock asked him to shoot the film on a color negative , to allow color VHS copies of the film to later be sold, but Spielberg did not want to accidentally "beautify events". However, scenes with the girl in the red coat were shot in color, and later rotoscoped over by hand to remove all color except for

10541-416: The first streaming video on-demand service in the world to support AD where every programme that was broadcast with AD also had AD on BBC iPlayer. On January 29, 2009, The Accessible Channel was launched in Canada, which broadcasts "open" audio descriptions on all programming via the primary audio track. Audio description has also been extended to live events, including sporting events, the ceremonies of

10668-403: The hit that it became". Billy Wilder expressed an interest in directing the film as a memorial to his family, most of whom were murdered in the Holocaust. Brian De Palma also refused an offer to direct. Spielberg finally decided to take on the project when he noticed that Holocaust deniers were being given serious consideration by the media. With the rise of neo-Nazism after the fall of

10795-532: The images of candle fire regain their warmth through color. For Spielberg, they represent "just a glint of color, and a glimmer of hope." Sara Horowitz, director of the Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Studies at York University , sees the candles as a symbol for the Jews of Europe, killed and then burned in the crematoria . The two scenes bracket the Nazi era, marking its beginning and end. She points out that normally,

10922-566: The late 1920s resulted in a push to make the cinema accessible to the visually impaired . The New York Times documented the "first talking picture ever shown especially for the blind"—a 1929 screening of Bulldog Drummond attended by members of the New York Association for the Blind and New York League for the Hard of Hearing, which offered a live description for the visually-impaired portion of

11049-412: The main theme. Schindler's List premiered on November 30, 1993, in Washington, D.C. , and was released on December 15, 1993, in the United States. Often listed among the greatest films ever made , the film received widespread critical acclaim for its tone, acting, atmosphere, score, cinematography, and Spielberg's direction; it was also a box office success, earning $ 322.2 million worldwide on

11176-552: The matches can be heard via audio description in every stadium in Switzerland . At St. Jakob-Park in Basel , even without delay via the Internet. In the meantime, the outdated technology of FM transmission has been abolished. Today, the games are broadcast via cell phone apps. In Germany , almost every stadium is also equipped with this technology. The Descriptive Video Service ( DVS ) is

11303-565: The movie as a "staggering adaptation of Thomas Keneally's best-seller ... with such frenzied pacing that it looks and feels like nothing Hollywood has ever made before ... Spielberg's most intense and personal film to date". James Verniere of the Boston Herald noted the film's restraint and lack of sensationalism, and called it a "major addition to the body of work about the Holocaust." In his review for The New York Review of Books , British critic John Gross said his misgivings that

11430-495: The new season of American Playhouse on January 24, 1990. In the 1990s at cinemas in California, RP International began to offer audio descriptions for theatrical films under the brand TheatreVision , relayed via earpieces to those who request it. A clip from Schindler's List was used to pitch the concept to the film's producers Gerald Molen and Branko Lustig , and one of the first films to be presented in this format

11557-887: The order faced a court challenge led by the MPAA , who questioned the FCC's jurisdiction on the matter. In November 2002, the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the FCC had no statutory jurisdiction to enforce such a rule. This was rectified in 2010 with the passing of the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act , which gave the FCC jurisdiction to enforce video description requirements. The previously intended quotas were reinstated on July 1, 2012, and have been gradually increased to require more programming and wider participation since their implementation. Broadcast audio description

11684-406: The physically large and strongly drawn characters of Schindler and Göth overshadow the Jewish victims, who are depicted as small, scurrying, and frightened – a mere backdrop to the struggle of good versus evil. Horowitz points out that the film's dichotomy of absolute good versus absolute evil glosses over the fact that most Holocaust perpetrators were ordinary people; the movie does not explore how

11811-505: The platform over time. The following year, as part of a settlement with the American Council of the Blind , Netflix agreed to provide descriptions for its original series within 30 days of their premiere, and add screen reader support and the ability to browse content by availability of descriptions. On June 17, 2016, Pornhub announced that it would launch a collection of pornographic videos with audio descriptions. The initiative

11938-459: The project remained "on [his] guilty conscience". Spielberg tried to pass the project to director Roman Polanski , but he refused Spielberg's offer. Polanski's mother was killed at Auschwitz, and he had lived in and survived the Kraków Ghetto. Polanski eventually directed his own Holocaust drama The Pianist (2002). Spielberg also offered the film to Sydney Pollack and Martin Scorsese , who

12065-502: The role. He watched historic newsreels and talked to Holocaust survivors who knew Göth. In portraying him, Fiennes said "I got close to his pain. Inside him is a fractured, miserable human being. I feel split about him, sorry for him. He's like some dirty, battered doll I was given and that I came to feel peculiarly attached to." Doctors Samuel J. Leistedt and Paul Linkowski of the Université libre de Bruxelles describe Göth's character in

12192-426: The rules, affiliates in the top 25 markets and the top five-rated cable networks will have to provide at least 50 hours of video described programming per quarter; the rules took effect on July 1, 2012. However, this provision currently does not apply to syndicated programming; notably, many programs which have audio description in their network runs, such as those produced by Twentieth Century Fox Television , remove

12319-401: The scene was intended to symbolize how members of the highest levels of government in the United States knew the Holocaust was occurring, yet did nothing to stop it. He said: "It was as obvious as a little girl wearing a red coat, walking down the street, and yet nothing was done to bomb the German rail lines. Nothing was being done to slow down ... the annihilation of European Jewry. So that

12446-474: The score were released on a soundtrack album . The film explores the theme of good and evil , using as its main protagonist a "good German", a popular characterization in American cinema. While Göth is portrayed as an almost completely dark and evil person, Schindler gradually evolves from Nazi supporter to rescuer and hero. Thus a second theme of redemption is introduced as Schindler, a disreputable schemer on

12573-419: The sense of loss and to allow the viewer an opportunity to mourn alongside the characters on the screen. Bartov wrote that the "positively repulsive kitsch of the last two scenes seriously undermines much of the film's previous merits". He describes the humanization of Schindler as "banal", and is critical of what he describes as the " Zionist closure" set to the song " Jerusalem of Gold ". Schindler's List

12700-414: The service of saving these lives?" Spielberg expressed enough interest for Universal Pictures to buy the rights to the novel. At their first meeting in spring 1983, he told Pfefferberg he would start filming in ten years. In the end credits of the film, Pfefferberg is credited as a consultant under the name Leopold Page. Spielberg was unsure if he was mature enough to make a film about the Holocaust, and

12827-515: The shoot, Spielberg conceived the epilogue, where 128 survivors pay their respects at Schindler's grave in Jerusalem. The producers scrambled to find the Schindlerjuden and fly them in to film the scene. Principal photography began on March 1, 1993, in Kraków , Poland, with a planned schedule of 75 days. The crew shot at or near the actual locations, though the Płaszów camp had to be reconstructed in

12954-534: The shower scene, including one who was born in a concentration camp. Spielberg, his wife Kate Capshaw , and their five children rented a house in suburban Kraków for the duration of filming. He later thanked his wife "for rescuing me ninety-two days in a row ... when things just got too unbearable". Robin Williams called Spielberg to cheer him up, given the profound lack of humor on the set. Spielberg spent several hours each evening editing Jurassic Park , which

13081-440: The shows of Gordon Ramsay ( Hell's Kitchen , Hotel Hell and Kitchen Nightmares ) is described by the Media Access Group; Ramsay's programs are contracted by his producing studio to have audio description done by Scottish-born voiceover artist Mhairi Morrison with Descriptive Video Works . Unique to most described shows, Fox's Empire uses actress Adrienne Barbeau for their description. CBS's described shows all use

13208-426: The start of their fourth season upon the move to Hulu, which does not yet provide DVS service. Cartoon Network and their time-share partner Adult Swim began to pass-through DVS for their syndicated content in the last quarter of 2018. Schindler%27s List Schindler's List is a 1993 American epic historical drama film directed and produced by Steven Spielberg and written by Steven Zaillian . It

13335-435: The story to a wide audience, he found the film's final scene at the graveyard neglected the terrible after-effects of the experience on the survivors and implied that they came through emotionally unscathed. Rabbi Uri D. Herscher found the film an "appealing" and "uplifting" demonstration of humanitarianism. Norbert Friedman noted that, like many Holocaust survivors, he reacted with a feeling of solidarity towards Spielberg of

13462-413: The story would be overly sentimentalized "were altogether misplaced. Spielberg shows a firm moral and emotional grasp of his material. The film is an outstanding achievement." Mintz notes that even the film's harshest critics admire the "visual brilliance" of the fifteen-minute segment depicting the liquidation of the Kraków ghetto. He describes the sequence as "realistic" and "stunning". He points out that

13589-454: The symbol of life is color. That's why a film about the Holocaust has to be in black-and-white." Robert Gellately notes the film in its entirety can be seen as a metaphor for the Holocaust, with early sporadic violence increasing into a crescendo of death and destruction. He also notes a parallel between the situation of the Jews in the film and the debate in Nazi Germany between making use of

13716-432: The technical limitations of the analog NTSC standard. Description by DVS and other producers was still available in a limited form on television (the greatest percentage of DVS programming is still on PBS). WGBH's Media Access Group continues supporting description of feature films (known as DVS Theatrical) and DVS home videos/ DVDs are available from WGBH as well as other vendors and libraries. Commercial caption providers

13843-400: The title character, and for the 1994 remake of Little Women , stars from previous versions of the film volunteered, including June Allyson , Margaret O'Brien , and Janet Leigh (whose grandmother was blind) from the 1949 version of the film, as well as Katharine Hepburn —star of the 1933 version . Other companies emerged in providing descriptions for programming in the U.S., including

13970-459: The war by sneaking through Poland while pretending to be Catholic. According to scriptwriter Frederic Raphael , when he suggested to Kubrick that Schindler's List was a good representation of the Holocaust, Kubrick commented, "Think that's about the Holocaust? That was about success, wasn't it? The Holocaust is about 6 million people who get killed. Schindler's List is about 600 who don't." Filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard accused Spielberg of using

14097-457: The woman of the house lights the Sabbath candles. In the film, it is men who perform this ritual, demonstrating not only the subservient role of women, but also the subservient position of Jewish men in relation to Aryan men, especially Göth and Schindler. To Spielberg, the black and white presentation of the film came to represent the Holocaust itself: "The Holocaust was life without light. For me

14224-464: Was Forrest Gump (1994). TheatreVision sought notable personalities and celebrities to volunteer in providing these narrations, such as sportscaster Vin Scully , William Shatner , Monty Hall , and former U.S. president George H. W. Bush (for It's a Wonderful Life ). Sometimes the narrator had ties to the film or was part of its cast; Irene Bedard described Pocahontas —a film where she had voiced

14351-566: Was also adopted in Switzerland. The radio of FC Basel 1893 was the first club in Switzerland to take up this topic. First, FC Basel installed an antenna in St. Jakob Park , which was used to broadcast the radio's live commentary. The visually impaired and blind fans could then listen to the commentary via a VHF frequency. More and more clubs in the Swiss Super League adopted this concept and today

14478-487: Was attached to direct Schindler's List in 1988. However, Spielberg was unsure of letting Scorsese direct the film, as "I'd given away a chance to do something for my children and family about the Holocaust." Spielberg offered him the chance to direct the 1991 remake of Cape Fear instead. Scorsese would later admit in an interview that while he believed his version of the film might've been good, he had no regrets passing it to Spielberg stating that "it would not have been

14605-541: Was developed in consultation with Dr. Margaret Pfanstiehl of Washington, D.C. , who had performed descriptions at theatrical performances and had run a radio reading service known as the Washington Ear. After four years of development and on-air trials (which included a proof of concept that aired the descriptions on a radio station in simulcast with the television airing), WGBH officially launched audio description via 32 participating PBS member stations, beginning with

14732-560: Was digitally remastered in 4K , Dolby Vision and Atmos and was reissued into theaters on December 7, 2018, for its 25th anniversary. The film was released on Ultra HD Blu-ray on December 18, 2018. Following the success of the film, Spielberg founded the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation , a nonprofit organization with the goal of providing an archive for the filmed testimony of as many survivors of

14859-530: Was hit in the face with my personal life. My upbringing. My Jewishness. The stories my grandparents told me about the Shoah . And Jewish life came pouring back into my heart. I cried all the time. Shooting Schindler's List was deeply emotional for Spielberg, as the subject matter forced him to confront elements of his childhood, such as the antisemitism he faced. He was surprised that he did not cry while visiting Auschwitz; instead, he found himself filled with outrage. He

14986-519: Was known in the Kraków Ghetto for her red coat, feels the character might have been based on her. Ligocka, unlike her fictional counterpart, survived the Holocaust. After the film was released, she wrote and published her own story, The Girl in the Red Coat : A Memoir (2002, in translation). Alternatively, according to her relatives who were interviewed in 2014, the girl may have been inspired by Kraków resident Genya Gitel Chil. The opening scene features

15113-622: Was launched (the series' description propagated to its Netflix run several weeks after it was placed on that service after the first-season finale). MyNetworkTV has no provisions for audio description or language dub tracks, despite many of its scripted series having DVS tracks. Online streaming services such as Hulu and the services of television networks themselves such as CBS All Access have yet to carry descriptive video service audio in most cases as they instead are currently focused on adding closed captioning to their libraries (the network app for ABC began to carry existing audio described shows in

15240-401: Was my message in letting that scene be in color." Andy Patrizio of IGN notes that the point at which Schindler sees the girl's dead body is the point at which he changes, no longer seeing "the ash and soot of burning corpses piling up on his car as just an annoyance". Professor André H. Caron of the Université de Montréal wonders if the red symbolizes "innocence, hope or the red blood of

15367-419: Was offered the role but he refused it. Overall, there are 126 speaking parts in the film. Thousands of extras were hired during filming. Spielberg cast Israeli and Polish actors specially chosen for their Eastern European appearance. Many of the German actors were reluctant to don the SS uniform, but some of them later thanked Spielberg for the cathartic experience of performing in the movie. Halfway through

15494-441: Was one of many crew members who could not force themselves to watch during the shooting of the scene where aging Jews are forced to run naked while being selected by Nazi doctors to go to Auschwitz. Spielberg commented that he felt more like a reporter than a film maker – he would set up scenes and then watch events unfold, almost as though he were witnessing them rather than creating a movie. Several actresses broke down when filming

15621-463: Was provided as a public service. However, in 2000, the Federal Communications Commission would enact a policy effective April 1, 2002, requiring the affiliates of the four major television networks in the top 25 markets, and television providers with more than 50,000 subscribers via the top 5 cable networks as determined by Nielsen ratings , to offer 50 hours of programming with descriptions during primetime or children's programming per-quarter. However,

15748-415: Was released in a THX widescreen VHS format on September 9, 1997. The DVD was released on March 9, 2004, in widescreen and full screen editions, on a double-sided disc with the feature film beginning on side A and continuing on side B. Special features include a documentary introduced by Spielberg. Also released for both formats was a limited edition gift set, which included the widescreen version of

15875-455: Was scheduled to premiere in June 1993. Spielberg occasionally used German and Polish language dialogue to create a sense of realism. He initially considered making the film entirely in those languages, but decided "there's too much safety in reading [subtitles]. It would have been an excuse [for the audience] to take their eyes off the screen and watch something else." Influenced by

16002-445: Was very well received by many of Spielberg's peers. Filmmaker Billy Wilder wrote to Spielberg saying, "They couldn't have gotten a better man. This movie is absolutely perfection." Polanski, who turned down the chance to direct the film, later commented, "I certainly wouldn't have done as good a job as Spielberg because I couldn't have been as objective as he was." He cited Schindler's List as an influence on his 1994 film Death and

16129-488: Was viewed by over 100,000 people in its first week alone from 48 screens and was eventually shown in 500 theaters (including 80 paid for by municipal authorities), with a total of six million admissions and a gross of $ 38 million. Its 25th anniversary showings grossed $ 551,000 in 1,029 theaters. Spielberg won the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Feature Film for his work, and shared

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