September is World Alzheimer’s Month, with a focus on World Alzheimer’s day on 21st September. It can highlight the importance of taking the time to talk and helping to break the silence around dementia.

The month is a global opportunity to raise awareness around dementia, one of the biggest challenges we face, with nearly 50 million people living with dementia worldwide. it is important for everyone to understand how it impacts the daily lives of people affected by the condition and challenge the stigma that surrounds it. People and organisations have a chance to demonstrate how we can overcome these issues and help people live well with dementia. Find out more about how to get involved in the UK from Alzheimer’s Society.

We can help by working together, collaborating and sharing best practice with one another. We have included some resources below to help get you started. You may want to join the Dementia Friends movement, or help by sharing information with friends, family and colleagues.

Dementia and cinema

Cinema and film can be an inspiring and powerful tool for representation and developing awareness projects. Find some inspiration on this page for further research and planning ideas. There is also some information about setting up online film clubs and resources to help plan in this difficult time due to coronavirus.

Dementia-friendly cinema screenings create a slice of normal life for people living with dementia, a chance to experience film in a relaxed and supported environment. The screenings have adaptations to make the space more comfortable and accessible for people living with dementia to enjoy film, as individuals or with their families. Organisations such as the UK Cinema Association, Alzheimers Society and FAN have worked with cinemas to support them in welcoming audiences living with dementia.

During coronavirus, there were restrictions on dementia-friendly screenings as public events could be a higher risk activity for some audiences living with dementia, or for people who are living in care homes. Make sure to follow current advice on dementia friendly cinema from the Alzheimers Society.

We believe we should be constantly striving to improve access to film and cinema for all audiences and have provided some training resources and information on this page to help you host Dementia Friendly Screenings in your venue.

These resources may also assist and inspire you towards creating a more accessible and inclusive experience for your events more generally, for example increasing staff and audience awareness, introducing a more relaxed policy to your screenings, providing quiet spaces or improving signage.

Online and at home ideas for arts, heritage and cultural organisations

Cinema’s can offer much needed support. The Alzheimer’s Society need organisations to take action and support people affected by dementia to keep them connected to their culture and their community in new and creative ways. Here are some of the key actions they suggest you can do to make a difference to people’s lives:

  • Distribute printed reminiscence packs to allow people to enjoy activities at home.
  • Advertise any virtual tours of places, museums or lend out gift DVD’s
  • Host online screenings or showings.
  • Live stream or televise your planned activities so people can stay active and engaged at home.
  • Reach out to volunteer networks to help you reach people in your community.
  • Signpost for people affected by dementia to our Dementia Connect support line 0333 150 3456  for advice and support.

Share your experiences

We would love to know about your film or cinema project at Inclusive Cinema. If you’d like to submit your own case study, please download this Inclusive screening case study template and submit it to includeme[at]filmhubwales.org, so we can share your experiences, too.    

Carey Mulligan on dementia-friendly screenings - BBC Newsnight

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Testing Situations – Blog

Testing Situations was awarded a Wellcome Public Engagement Grant to tour around the UK throughout 2019. Through a range of events – from exhibitions and one off screenings to interactive workshops, live experiments and public discussions – the tour has been drawing on the knowledge of experts and communities and learning how testing can affect people’s lives and society at … More

Dementia Friendly Film Screenings at Theatr Colwyn

Project Overview At the back end of 2016, we signed up to ‘A Life More Ordinary’ (ALMO) project, based at The Dukes in Lancaster and now being rolled out across the UK. This pioneering scheme gives people living with dementia, their friends, family and carers the opportunities to enjoy regular cultural and arts events, such … More

FAN supported BFI Musicals in autumn 2019. This was a nationwide cinema season celebrating the spectacle and craft of Musicals on film. This major season was led by BFI, Independent Cinema Office and Film Audience Network (FAN). 

FAN member cinemas could access screening support to present films, mini seasons or events as part of the season. With screening support, they received help to fund their own independent programming and events plus support to do wrap around activity related to the seasons core titles.

For exhibitors who wanted to include Captioned Subtitles on their screenings, Sweet Charity was bookable from the ICO touring programme. Tommy and Singin’ in the Rain was available from the BFI.

Exhibitors who wanted to run a Dementia-Friendly screening, could take a look at our downloads section. Screenings are adapted to make the environment more suitable for people living with dementia. You can find more about running dementia-friendly screenings here. Dementia-friendly screenings are also sometimes called Relaxed Screenings, though these can also be suitable for people with multi sensory sensitivities or different conditions such as autism or learning disabilities.

Exhibitors who were interested in running a relaxed screening, could find out more in our quick tips for running relaxed screenings. There is also some transferable advice in our autism-friendly screenings guide, though bear in mind much of this advice is specific to people living with autism, not necessarily those who are Learning Disabled. Ideally, consult with Learning Disabled groups in your area for advice and expertise.

Silver Sunday: Celebrating Older People – Resources

View & download 2019 resources including our info pack, event toolkit, guides, logos, images, invitations, posters, social media, digital screens, bunting, badges, letters & templates. Please do share any communications you create with @SilverSundayUK on social media or via info@SilverSunday.org.uk.

Matinee

Project overview Why the project matters Matinée provides dementia friendly cinema screenings across Derbyshire for people living with memory challenges, their family and friends. People with a dementia are ‘at higher risk of social isolation through a loss of social networks/ social support… Social isolation… has been associated with the risk of developing dementia.” Reducing … More