The Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Youth Foundation (F-ASEJ) presented a sneak preview of the promotional film presenting its project for an adapted version of the book The Little Prince for young blind persons on Saturday, 17 November 2012 at the Cité de l’Espace (Space Museum) of Toulouse.
This special screening took place during the gala evening of the Des Etoiles et des Ailes (Stars and Wings) Aerospace Festival, whose patrons are French astronauts Jean-Loup CHRÉTIEN, Patrick BAUDRY and Michel TOGNINI, in front of more than 600 spectators, including a number of personalities representing the principal air and space companies of the Midi-Pyrénées region.
This short film by filmmaker Pierre SCHUMACHER named Le Petit Prince, un rêve au bout des doigts (The Little Prince, Sight and Touch) was produced by the company Séquences Clés (the first broadcasting company in France mainly employing handicapped persons), under the supervision of aviator Dorine BOURNETON, in collaboration with the French Air Force and with the support of Dassault Aviation and Dassault Systèmes.
The shooting of the film took place at the “Major Antoine de SAINT-EXUPERY” air base (BA113) in Saint-Dizier in September 2012, with the participation of the Service d’Information et de Relations Publiques de l’Armée de l’Air (SIRPA Air – French Air Force’s Information and Public Relations Department), the Rafale Solo Display Team of the French Air Force and its elite pilot, Captain Michaël BROCARD.
Our President, François d’AGAY, nephew and godson of the writer and aviator, Antoine de SAINT-EXUPERY, launched the screening of the film, which was simultaneously broadcast in the two amphitheatres of the Cité de l’Espace, together with the Managing Director of the Cité, Jean-Baptiste DESBOIS, the President of the Festival, Catherine GAY, Air Commodore Jean-Christophe ZIMMERMANN, representing the Defence Minister and the French Air Force’s Chief of Staff, actor Aziz ZOGAGHI and the team behind the film.
The goal of this film is to promote our project of making the book The Little Prince accessible for the blind by publishing a book adapted to tactile reading: text in Braille and in large print, with transcription in relief of Antoine de SAINT-EXUPERY’s watercolour illustrations (a world-first for the most translated French literary work on the globe, with currently more than 260 official translations in foreign languages and dialects).
More generally, this film will allow us to increase public awareness of visual impairment among youth, the general public and the media, and to search for partners and sponsors for the accomplishment of this civic and socially-responsible publishing project for blind youth, who will thereafter be able to discover the magic and dreams of this world-renowned tale and its universal humanist values.
The Foundation aims to complete this project in 2013 to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the first edition of the famous tale (New York, 1943).
