How relaxed screen­ings are increas­ing cin­e­ma accessibility

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.

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.