The Welfare Screen Social Case Study

We had 39 targeted Screen Social Screenings alongside a broad regular programme of film screenings from June 2025-March 2026, (199 screenings of 68 titles), 49 titles of which were independent or alternative film.

We think we’ve screened a great range of films for Screen Social, from I Swear (all our screenings of this film were relaxed on point of principle) to Downton Abbey, from Brides to The Choral, to Lilo & Stitch!

Mami a Babi screenings are a success (in spite of the revolving door of this demographic, which is a challenge). We have brought some mums back to cinema for first time in two years, attracting new attenders, leading to the development of a local breastfeeding café, stronger links with Flying Start and reported improved mood/mental health.

We’re proud to offer this in a small town with most mother and baby screenings taking place in cities, available only to those who can afford it. Early parenthood is hugely expensive and being able to offer this experience for free opens it up to mums who would otherwise not be able to attend.

Definitely maintaining engagement from third sector organisations – their funding and capacity has been stripped right back, so understandably, they are struggling to do the basics, and maintaining communication under these circumstances has often been a challenge. Plenty of patience and perseverance required!

Without funding from Film Hub Wales, we wouldn’t have been able to run the project – it’s that simple.

Whilst take up was initially slow, the response from those attending has always been positive – even if the films don’t always quite land with all of those watching. We have one older woman who has started attending our Silver Screenings as a result of hearing about them at our weekly Social Hub who at least once has said that if she’d paid, she’d be asking for her money back (Tuner – too much swearing). This sounds tongue in cheek, but we know this individual can only attend events if they are free or very cheap, and this is something echoed in feedback forms, as well as all surveyed attendees reporting improved mood as a result of attending.

More recently, attendance at Silver and Relaxed screenings have grown to the point that next season we may need to look at capping the number of free tickets available, introducing a donation option or introducing a small charge as demand is outstripping the funding we have available for free tickets.

An element of our Film Hub Wales funded work is screenings with Q&As which led to very insightful, inclusive conversations. The Road of Excess was a huge hit with our audiences, far exceeding regular audience numbers, attracting a high number of new attenders and informing future work on men’s mental health. We ran engagement for a series of men’s photography workshops that came about as a result of the screening and feedback received as part of a post-screening questionnaire and are currently working on an ACW-funded Men’s Mental Health project informed by this work.

Whilst our LGBTQ+ screenings attracted a much smaller audience, the Iris on tour films were well received and the post show panel with Berwyn Rowlands and Queer rights activists Simon Maddrell & Jonathan Blake was moving and memorable. This event led to further conversations with the organiser of Ystrad Pride who welcomed the events as inclusive and validating, and helped build a relationship which saw us collaborating on events for Pride Month in June 26.

We’ve learned that whilst it’s important to be able to change tack if something isn’t working for audiences – eg. keeping lights low for older audiences, to help with mobility, didn’t work for those attending as they found it harder to see the contrast on screen. As a result, we have switched to house lights off during the screening, instead using a very gradual fade to take them out at the start of the screening and bring them back in at the end – it’s also important to recognise that building an audience, especially through contact with organisations can take longer than one funding period and requires perseverance.

Our relaxed screenings were the most irregularly attended of our Screen Social screenings during the first year, but attendances are now outstripping the allocated free spaces due to a local organisations having committed to attending regularly – as a result of this, we’ve recently introduced a small ticket fee for group attendances, whilst maintaining funded tickets for those attending as individuals going forward.