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.
Sarah Stewart-Brown, professor of public health at the University of Warwick and a wellbeing expert, describes mental wellbeing as follows: “Feeling happy is a part of mental wellbeing. But it’s far from the whole. Feelings of contentment, enjoyment, confidence and engagement with the world are all a part of mental wellbeing. Self-esteem and self-confidence are, … More
With Learning Disability week coming up in June, now is the time to support learning disabled representation in the film industry as well as consider access to cinema for neurodivergent audiences.
In 2019, FAN New Releases supported Signature’s title The Peanut Butter Falcon, a modern Mark Twain-esque adventure starring Shia LaBeouf (American Honey, Fury) as a small-time outlaw turned unlikely coach who joins forces with Zack Gottsagen‘s Zak, a young man with Down Syndrome on the run from a nursing home with the dream of becoming a professional wrestler. Dakota Johnson (Suspiria, Fifty Shades of Grey) stars as Zak’s loving, but stubborn, carer.
This feel-good film features a Learning Disabled actor in a leading role, where his disability is not the main element of the story. It’s a tale of friendship and adventure, and will appeal to fans of wrestling, good storytelling, and/or road movies.
You can now watch The Peanut Butter Falcon on BFI Player.
Bookings for Community Cinema screenings can be made from Cinema For All.
You can also watch the film My Feral Heart on BFI Player. A drama in which Luke (Steven Brandon), a young man with Down’s syndrome who prizes his independence, is forced into a care home after the death of his mother. There he rails against the restrictions imposed on him, but his frustrations are allayed by his budding friendships with his care-worker Eve (Shana Swash) and a mysterious feral girl (Pixie Le Knot).
If you’re interested to run a relaxed screening, to help bring in Learning Disabled audiences to your cinema, find out more in our quick tips for running relaxed screenings. You may also find 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.
Every design decision can make the user experience better or worse. Successful inclusive design requires informed decision-making at the concept stage, because it can become prohibitively expensive to make changes later on. This kit describes the four main phases of inclusive concept design: Manage: Review the evidence to decide ‘What should we do next?’ Explore: … More
Whether you already caption, aren’t sure if you need to caption, or are completely new to closed captioning, you’ll find something to learn in this guide.
Subtitles are something that many of us don’t even take notice of but their importance should not be underrated. Here we take a look at what subtitles are, where they are most used and how they are made.
Project overview Part of BFI Comedy Genius, Sign for All collaborated with Women Over Fifty Film Festival (WOFFF) and The New Black Film Collective (TNBFC) in screening silent short films for the deaf community in Birmingham’s MAC and London’s Stratford East Picturehouse. The screenings also included stand up Deaf Comedian Rinkoo Barpaga. Why the project … More
Scottish Queer International Film Festival (SQIFF) was founded in 2014, holding its first one-off screening in September of that year and 3 annual Festivals since then. Attendance has grown from 1801 at our first festival in 2015 to 4609 in 2017 (a 156% increase). SQIFF’s audiences are made up of diverse LGBTQ+ communities and a … More
Opening Our Doors was a day of workshops and talks developed by Film Hub Wales, aimed at highlighting inclusivity and equality in film exhibition. The event was aimed at exhibitors seeking to capacity build within their own cinemas. It was a tailor-made day of workshops, case studies and discussions by experts and FAN members for FAN members aimed to boost exhibitor confidence in being more inclusive.
Working closely with Film Hub Scotland, and forming part of their Amplify programme, an Opening our Doors day was delivered in January 2019 to support members of the network in understanding and engaging with diverse communities including low-income, BAME, and disabled groups. The event also referenced programming, and marketing for diverse audiences.
The BFI diversity standards task exhibitors with supporting better inclusion in cinema, such as inclusion for those with additional needs and for those who might feel culturally excluded.
Many of us know about the barriers that are in front of us when we talk about building diverse audiences. We don’t really get the time to consider and talk about our options, our fears, talk to our peers and come up with solutions to improve what we offer.
The UK cinema sector is recognised as a world-leader in terms of its work to support and welcome disabled cinema-goers. Many of the changes made by UK cinema operators in this regard pre-empted and indeed went further than the requirements placed on cinemas, and others providing goods, facilities or services to the public, by the … More
