How relaxed screenings are increasing cinema… | Little White Lies

How relaxed screen­ings are increas­ing cin­e­ma accessibility

15 Aug 2024

Words by Lewis Powell

Red velvet curtains on a stage, with a person's face partially visible in the front row of an auditorium.
Red velvet curtains on a stage, with a person's face partially visible in the front row of an auditorium.
A rel­a­tive­ly new con­cept in exhi­bi­tion, these neu­ro­di­ver­gent-friend­ly events aim to widen cin­e­ma par­tic­i­pa­tion – but there’s still a long way to go.

As the world of film con­tin­ues to evolve, so too does our under­stand­ing of how to make cin­e­ma expe­ri­ences acces­si­ble to every­one. The tra­di­tion­al movie-going expe­ri­ence, with its encom­pass­ing dark­ness, loud sound, and rigid eti­quette, can be over­whelm­ing for many indi­vid­u­als, espe­cial­ly those with sen­so­ry sen­si­tiv­i­ties. Relaxed screen­ings are among the most impact­ful inno­va­tions in this field – spe­cial cin­e­ma events designed to cater to neu­ro­di­verse audi­ences, includ­ing indi­vid­u­als with autism, ADHD, and sen­so­ry pro­cess­ing dis­or­ders – and are a key pos­i­tive step for­ward towards cin­e­ma accessibility.

These screen­ings mod­i­fy the view­ing envi­ron­ment by keep­ing lights dimmed rather than turned off, low­er­ing sound lev­els, and allow­ing for free­dom of move­ment and noise with­in the cin­e­ma space. Some events also include post-film pan­els or dis­cus­sions. This loos­en­ing of the rigid struc­tures around cin­e­ma cre­ates a more wel­come space for neu­ro­di­verse patrons and by reduc­ing sen­so­ry over­load, relaxed screen­ings are able to intro­duce film to many audi­ences who sim­ply would find the stan­dard the­atri­cal view­ing envi­ron­ment too taxing.

While these screen­ings have made sig­nif­i­cant strides in improv­ing acces­si­bil­i­ty, there remains a need for deep­er inclu­siv­i­ty and an increased vari­ety in pro­gram­ming. A com­mon crit­i­cism lobbed at relaxed screen­ings is that too many of these show­times tend to focus pre­dom­i­nant­ly on fam­i­ly-friend­ly films. While this is of course a key and cru­cial step in cre­at­ing cin­e­ma acces­si­bil­i­ty for some neu­ro­di­verse patrons, this doesn’t fit the bill for every­one. Neu­ro­di­ver­si­ty is a spec­trum, and it’s very pos­si­ble for a neu­ro­di­verse child to grow into a neu­ro­di­verse adult who still requires, or at least ben­e­fits from, the infor­mal space relaxed screen­ings offer, but who, like any oth­er neu­rotyp­i­cal indi­vid­ual, has their own tastes. Tastes that don’t align with the stereo­type of neu­ro­di­ver­si­ty that seems to per­me­ate through cul­ture. Hav­ing the lights up a lit­tle, the sound down a tad, and the free­dom and flex­i­bil­i­ty to be able to move around the audi­to­ri­um can often be essen­tial for neu­ro­di­verse audi­ences to be able to expe­ri­ence the joy that is a trip to the cin­e­ma. Regard­less of the genre of con­tent they enjoy. Like neu­rotyp­i­cal audi­ences, neu­ro­di­verse audi­ences deserve a range of con­tent that suits each spe­cif­ic indi­vid­ual, whether that be bru­tal 18-rat­ed hor­rors, or the lat­est fam­i­ly flick.

With all that said, it remains incred­i­bly cru­cial that we do not infan­tilize neu­ro­di­verse audi­ences. Hav­ing expe­ri­enced this first-hand, I under­stand how lim­it­ing and patro­n­is­ing it can feel when relaxed screen­ings are over­ly focused on con­tent designed sole­ly for younger demo­graph­ics – even more so when this con­tent is months old. Exclu­sive­ly show­ing old­er titles at relaxed screen­ings denies neu­ro­di­verse audi­ences the chance to get involved in the buzz of an open­ing week­end for a big new release, and often fails to acknowl­edge the com­plex and var­ied inter­ests of adult neu­ro­di­verse indi­vid­u­als, who, like any oth­er group, have diverse tastes and pref­er­ences. The assump­tion that neu­ro­di­verse indi­vid­u­als’ needs are best met by pro­gram­ming children’s con­tent can be both exclu­sion­ary and dimin­ish­ing. Adult neu­ro­di­verse indi­vid­u­als deserve to enjoy a wider range of films in a set­ting that respects their sen­so­ry needs and per­son­al pref­er­ences. We deserve to be able to engage in con­tent around its release, instead of being months behind neu­rotyp­i­cal audiences.

In the past, I relied exclu­sive­ly on relaxed screen­ings to attend the cin­e­ma, but the infre­quent nature of these show­ings led to frus­tra­tion as I wait­ed for the next one. This was espe­cial­ly true as my inter­ests evolved from fam­i­ly-friend­ly con­tent to more genre-spe­cif­ic films. As I grew old­er, I found it increas­ing­ly chal­leng­ing to find screen­ings that catered to my tastes. Even­tu­al­ly, I had to adjust and teach myself to attend reg­u­lar screen­ings, despite the dif­fi­cul­ties it posed for my neu­ro­di­verse brain. This adap­ta­tion process was far from easy. I want­ed to par­tic­i­pate ful­ly, to expe­ri­ence new releas­es like the lat­est hor­ror films on open­ing night, just like my friends and peers. Instead, I often found myself stand­ing in the aisles or wait­ing in the cor­ri­dor until the trail­ers end­ed, try­ing to mit­i­gate the sen­so­ry over­load. These adjust­ments, though even­tu­al­ly effec­tive, were dif­fi­cult and stress­ful. No one should have to endure such chal­lenges just to enjoy some­thing they love, such as a night out at the movies.

Address­ing this gap, the BFI’s relaxed screen­ing of David Lynch’s Eraser­head – as part of their Dis­com­fort Sea­son – offers a real chance to neu­ro­di­verse indi­vid­u­als to access bold and thought-pro­vok­ing genre con­tent. The selec­tion of Eraser­head’, a film renowned for its sur­re­al and avant-garde style, sig­nals a sig­nif­i­cant shift in the approach to relaxed screen­ings. By fea­tur­ing such uncon­ven­tion­al and intel­lec­tu­al­ly stim­u­lat­ing con­tent, the BFI is mak­ing a pow­er­ful state­ment about the inclu­siv­i­ty of its pro­gram­ming, offer­ing neu­ro­di­verse indi­vid­u­als an oppor­tu­ni­ty to engage with com­plex and genre-defy­ing films in an envi­ron­ment that respects their sen­so­ry needs.

A person in a white outfit stands in a dimly lit room with a patterned floor, shelves, and furniture visible.

Geor­gia Kumari Brad­burn, a neu­ro­di­verse film­mak­er and the host of the Eraser­head screen­ing, empha­sis­es that the true val­ue of relaxed screen­ings lies not in their exis­tence but in their effec­tive­ness. She asserts, I don’t think the mere exis­tence of these screen­ings is what should be applaud­ed but how well they func­tion for their audi­ence. The point is to ensure that neu­ro­di­ver­gent audi­ences can enjoy going to the cin­e­ma in the same way that neu­rotyp­i­cal peo­ple can.” While many cin­e­mas pride them­selves on offer­ing autism-friend­ly screen­ings, Geor­gia points out that these efforts can very often fall short if they don’t address the true rea­son they exist: I think the key thing to remem­ber in acces­si­ble pro­gram­ming is the con­cept of equal oppor­tu­ni­ties. It seems to me that many cin­e­mas and insti­tu­tions give them­selves a pat on the back when they put on screen­ings that are autism-friend­ly, or demen­tia friendly…even if they don’t ful­ly con­sid­er how to make them tru­ly accessible.”

Sad­ly, this event has not arrived with­out scep­ti­cism. The deci­sion to include Eraser­head as a relaxed screen­ing has crit­ics ques­tion­ing whether such a chal­leng­ing film, known for its intense and uncon­ven­tion­al style, is tru­ly suit­able for a relaxed set­ting. They argue that the film’s unique demands might not align with the relaxed screen­ing envi­ron­ment, which is tra­di­tion­al­ly more focused on eas­ing sen­so­ry overload.

Of course, there are chal­lenges that come with screen­ing more intense films in relaxed set­tings,” Geor­gia notes. When I have host­ed relaxed screen­ings in the past, I have met with the AV team to select spe­cif­ic points in the film to low­er the vol­ume and raise it back up again when it gets qui­et. For more intense films this process is tricky and requires a bit more time…but it’s all part of the process of mak­ing these screen­ings tru­ly accessible.”

Amidst this debate, one cru­cial aspect is often over­looked: the neu­ro­di­ver­gent patrons’ choice. This screen­ing is not manda­to­ry – the BFI are offer­ing this screen­ing as an option for those who might be inter­est­ed in expe­ri­enc­ing a film like this with­in a relaxed envi­ron­ment. Just as a neu­rotyp­i­cal per­son can choose what film they want to see from the reado­graph, neu­ro­di­verse audi­ences also have a vari­ety of options to choose from based on their per­son­al pref­er­ence” Geor­gia com­ments. What’s so excit­ing about the BFI’s relaxed screen­ing pro­gramme is the vari­ety of films being shown, from fam­i­ly-friend­ly films such as Fan­ta­sia and Time Ban­dits, to more intense films such as Under the Skin and Eraser­head. That’s what an equal oppor­tu­ni­ty is.”

This choice of pro­gram­ming high­lights the BFI’s respect for neu­ro­di­verse indi­vid­u­als’ auton­o­my and pref­er­ences. All our choic­es for relaxed screen­ings are made col­lab­o­ra­tive­ly with neu­ro­di­ver­gent cura­tors and artists,” Mag­gi Hurt from the BFI South­bank Pro­gramme team com­ments. Just like there isn’t a sin­gle neu­rotyp­i­cal audi­ence, there isn’t a sin­gle neu­ro­di­ver­gent audi­ence. In 2019, there appeared to be noth­ing that catered for adults, par­tic­u­lar­ly adult cinephiles, who want­ed to enjoy films in a relaxed space. Not all screen­ing choic­es will be for every­one, but that goes for any cura­tion process.”

Build­ing on the suc­cess of the pro­gramme strand, BFI Lon­don Film Fes­ti­val began pre­sent­ing relaxed screen­ings last year and plans to con­tin­ue to do so this year, while BFI Flare has includ­ed relaxed per­for­mances in recent years as well. Also, BFI Future Film Fes­ti­val pio­neered the way for relaxed dis­cus­sion spaces in their pro­gramme in 2020 and con­tin­ues to make adjust­ments across their offer­ing each year.”

Out­side of Lon­don, anoth­er bril­liant inde­pen­dent cin­e­ma is also attempt­ing to rev­o­lu­tionise the way neu­ro­di­verse patrons can expe­ri­ence film. Water­shed in Bris­tol stands out for its inno­v­a­tive approach to relaxed screen­ings, offer­ing a mod­el of inclu­siv­i­ty that oth­er cin­e­mas can very eas­i­ly begin to emu­late, by mak­ing them a con­sis­tent and inte­gral part of their film sched­ule rather than an occa­sion­al fea­ture. With a focus on screen­ing new work in relaxed set­tings, rather than the re-issues that insti­tu­tions like the BFI often pri­ori­tise, neu­ro­di­verse audi­ences have the chance to engage with cur­rent films as they become part of the cul­tur­al con­ver­sa­tion. This ensures that neu­ro­di­verse indi­vid­u­als can still be part of the film zeitgeist.

As we move for­ward, the goal is to ensure that every movie­go­er can enjoy the full spec­trum of cin­e­mat­ic offer­ings in a set­ting that respects and sup­ports their indi­vid­ual needs. The BFI’s Eraser­head screen­ing and Watershed’s proud­ly diverse pro­gram­ming are bold steps towards achiev­ing this vision, and its impact will like­ly res­onate as a mile­stone in the jour­ney toward greater inclu­siv­i­ty in cin­e­ma. By embrac­ing both diver­si­ty and choice, we pave the way for a rich­er, more acces­si­ble cin­e­mat­ic land­scape where every indi­vid­ual can find joy and con­nec­tion in the mag­ic of film – regard­less of their neurodiversity.

You might like

Accessibility Settings

Text

Applies the Open Dyslexic font, designed to improve readability for individuals with dyslexia.

Applies a more readable font throughout the website, improving readability.

Underlines links throughout the website, making them easier to distinguish.

Adjusts the font size for improved readability.

Visuals

Reduces animations and disables autoplaying videos across the website, reducing distractions and improving focus.

Reduces the colour saturation throughout the website to create a more soothing visual experience.

Increases the contrast of elements on the website, making text and interface elements easier to distinguish.