ID Screening Days 2023
(Inclusion & Diversity)

An accessible space is one that welcomes you and is invested in similar community interests: it’s easy to feel like you’re sticking out like a sore thumb even in the dark of the cinema. We have to look beyond the films we’re showing and who they represent if we want to be truly inclusive, putting in the effort to make our screening environments more inviting and ensure they cater to a variety of audiences. In this workshop session, curator and events producer Miranda Mungai will offer inexpensive but thoughtful case studies exploring the practical changes your venue or programming group should consider. We’ll do group work to help find ways to encourage attendance from new audiences from disadvantaged and/or marginalised backgrounds.

One of the major disparities in film is access to funds and the skills needed to successfully bid for them. While it’s only part of the picture for a sustainable organisation, funding matters if you want to be ambitious and inclusive in your work. This workshop, intended for first timers and people growing in confidence and scale in bid writing, is suitable for venue workers and freelancers. Whether you’re looking to apply to a community fund or a film-specific funder, we’ll invite speakers to talk about successful (and unsuccessful!) fundraising methods, how to structure and plan a funding application and much more in a friendly workshop format that’ll help you feel confident about your first or next bid.

We can only make an inclusive space for audiences if we have inclusive spaces for the workers and volunteers in our industry. But inclusion isn’t a destination: it’s a daily habit. To look at ways we can find the best staff, retain them and let them flourish, we’ll break out into two sessions, one for people who are creating policies and implementing practice to discuss how to be more inclusive and supportive, and one for people who aren’t currently implementing policy but want to advocate for better practice and learn more about their rights in the workplace.

How Do You Feel Cinema is a new way to approach public screenings that enables everyone – curators, creative professionals, film audiences (and people who would not usually consider themselves to be film audiences) – to connect better to ourselves, each other, and the wider world. HDYFC works from a person-centred, care-led perspective, paying particular attention to global majority, LBGTQIA2+, and d/Deaf, disabled and neurodivergent communities, where welcome, hospitality, space-holding and access intimacy are key ingredients. Join practice-based academic Jenny Chamarette to hear about simple but effective ways we can care for audiences (and the people who build audiences) in the feeling space of film.

The South Asia Gallery at Manchester Museum opened in February 2023, taking a unique approach to curation, co-curated by a collective of people from the South Asian community in Manchester. This case study explores this work and the film season that unfolded from the project. It will give you insights into the co-curation journey, giving you practical guidance and advice on working with diverse communities from outside the sector to programme film seasons, festivals and events. You’ll come away from the session with top tips on how to incorporate this work into a long term inclusion strategy for a sustainable, evolving and 21st century approach to audience development.

Mint Chinese Film Festival stands proudly as Cumbria’s pioneering Chinese film festival. The Keswick Alhambra Cinema, a family-run independent cinema with over 100 years of history was its host for the inaugural 2023 edition. In this session, they’ll share their unique programming strategies, audience engagement, collaboration patterns and community outreach that demonstrate how to engage a wide range of different audiences.

Through organising film screenings, festivals and networking events, East and South East Asian (ESEA) creatives have been increasing the visibility of the community, which historically has been underrepresented in the UK, including the cultural sector, while shedding light on the brilliant diversity within the community. During the panel discussion, speakers Ching Wong of the Hong Kong Film Festival UK, Monica Wat of the ESEA arts festival MOON FEST and its production collective Made on the Moon and Yi Wang of Queer East will share their insights, from how to attract audiences – especially those who do not usually engage with independent cinema, how to devise and evaluate production and programming strategies, to ensuring that cinema initiatives are truly benefiting the community.