Bridge Multimedia Technologies Reimagines Audio Description for 100-Year-Old Silent Film “The Flying Ace”

Free Admission! New Live Score! 100th Anniversary Screening
The Flying Ace, October 7, 2026 at 7:00 p.m., IU Cinema, 1213 7th Street
ReelAbilities; The Media School Black Film Center & Archive; Indiana University Cinema; Indiana University Foundation; Of the People: The Smithsonian Festival of Festivals 2026

Bridge Multimedia Technologies has created the audio description for a special centennial presentation of The Flying Ace, the landmark 1926 silent feature with an all-Black cast, screening October 7 at Indiana University Cinema in Bloomington, Indiana.

The assignment posed an unusual creative question: how should audio description work for a film built around visual action and written intertitles, while also leaving room for a newly created live musical score? Bridge’s answer was to coordinate all three elements so each could carry the story when it mattered most, while preserving the pacing and structure that make silent cinema distinct.

The distinction is subtle but important. A second voice is often used to read foreign-language subtitles alongside audio description. Intertitles are different: they are part of silent cinema’s original storytelling structure, moving the audience from visual action to written dialogue or narrative information and back again.

For The Flying Ace, professional voice actor and audio description narrator Allyson Johnson carries the visual description, while award-winning audiobook narrator and actor JD Jackson gives voice to the film’s written dialogue and narrative intertitles. Their performances had to develop a deliberate rhythm – distinct enough that listeners understand each function – yet connected enough to remain one continuous film. As visual storytelling gives way to an intertitle, Jackson takes over; when the film returns to action, Johnson resumes the description.

The casting was equally intentional. First released during the race-film era, The Flying Ace features an all-Black cast and centers on Captain Billy Stokes, a Black World War I pilot and railroad detective. Bridge selected Black performers whose experience, storytelling ability, and vocal character could serve the world of the film.

Johnson brings more than 25 years of professional voice experience, including film and television audio description and live description for Saturday Night Live and the Tony Awards. Jackson has narrated hundreds of audiobooks, including works by Martin Luther King Jr., Ernest J. Gaines, and Colson Whitehead, and is a member of AudioFile’s Golden Voices Hall of Fame.

Joseph V. Amodio, an award-winning journalist, audio description writer, and live describer, wrote the description and serves as overall creative director. Jordan L. Brown, an African American voice director, screenwriter, and producer specializing in audio description, directs Johnson’s performance; Johnson, in turn, directs JD Jackson’s intertitle narration. The structure focuses as much on the relationship among the performances as on each voice individually, giving the team room to shape pacing, contrast, and continuity across the entire presentation.

“With a silent film, the pictures tell part of the story, the intertitles tell another part, and in this presentation the live music is telling the story too. Our job was to understand when description should lead, when the intertitles should lead, and when the best choice was to let the film and the music speak for themselves.”

That restraint matters because the screening features a new, partially improvised live score created and performed by GRAMMY Award-winning musician Matthew Whitaker and Robert Derke, Executive Director of the Filomen M. D’Agostino Greenberg Music School. The Bridge team built the description with enough room for music to remain an active storytelling element. The challenge was not finding every possible place to speak, but deciding whether description, intertitles, or music should carry the moment.

One of the film’s most distinctive performers is Steve “Peg” Reynolds, an amputee actor and stunt performer whose crutch work, physical comedy, action sequences, and bicycle chase make disability part of the film’s cinematic energy. Describing Reynolds meant conveying his timing, movement, skill, and humor while allowing audiences to experience him first as a performer within the film.

“The description and the intertitles play different roles, but they have to belong to the same experience,” Johnson said. “JD and I needed distinct voices and distinct functions, while still finding a rhythm that lets the listener stay inside the movie. Directing JD’s intertitle performance also gave me the chance to think about that relationship from both sides.”

The October 7 program is presented by ReelAbilities International in partnership with the Black Film Center & Archive at Indiana University and the Filomen M. D’Agostino Greenberg Music School, with support from the Smithsonian’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage as part of America 250 programming. It also serves as a pilot for ReelAbilities Rediscover, which explores new ways to bring historically significant films into public conversation through access, music, archival context, and collaboration. In addition to audio description and the live score, the program includes American Sign Language interpretation and professional live CART captioning for spoken portions, assistive-listening and audio-description devices, a post-film conversation, and a reception.

Enjoy the show!

The Bridge Team