Supportive Environment Film Screenings

Film Hub Wales worked with various venues across Wales and Welsh charity Contact to deliver supportive environment screenings for children with disabilities and/or additional needs and their families.

Supportive environment screenings are aimed at children and adults on the autism spectrum or with learning disabilities, and their families, friends and carers. Screenings are adjusted to support sensory needs with breakout spaces and support for parents to participate. During these screenings low level lights are left on in the auditorium and the volume of the soundtrack is reduced. There are no adverts or trailers before the film and visitors are free to get up and move around the cinema.

  • In Year One, FHW worked with Contact and Chapter to run a pilot supportive environment screening for families with disabled or additional needs children.  The free family film day, showing ‘The Boxtrolls’, was followed with a creative workshop to celebrate the 15th anniversary of Contact.
  • In Year Two the scheme was extended Wales-wide.
  • In Year Three FHW supported Contact to work with five cinemas across Wales to run six screenings, with a total of 30 screenings overall, as an extension of the programmes supported in Year Two.
  • In Year Four FHW supported Contact to work with five cinemas in Wales to launch the roll out of an accessibility kite mark. This enabled venues to deliver relaxed film screenings for families with children with disabilities and multi-sensory needs. Venues received mentoring from Contact to make the screenings sustainable, with potential to roll out in future.

Contact, with researcher Ben Ewart-Dean, helped us produce our Cinema Provision in Wales for Families with Disabled Children report here.

Contact also worked with Film Hub Wales to offer our Opening Doors workshops for exhibitors which you can read more about here.

Find out more

For further information on Supportive Environment Film Screenings or the FAN Inclusive Cinema Strategy click here or
contact FAN Access Officer Toki Allison: toki@filmhubwales.org

 

^
EN
EN CY