“Everyone should have access to cinema that nourishes the soul and changes lives.”

This is the ICO’s vision, but how can we ensure the cinema is genuinely inclusive of everyone? Moving beyond the buzz-word ‘diversity’, we take a closer look at ‘inclusivity’, and how to programme great cinema so that anyone can access it. How do we ensure everyone is included in cinema that is reflective of the variety of lived experience around the world?

We’ve put together some incredible, practical sessions with experts to give you clear ways your venue can help grow audiences for cinema for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and people experiencing dementia, and bring audiences to diverse representations of gender, ethnicity and sexual identity. Sessions include:

KEYNOTE: How can we include everyone in our community in our cinema?

Our keynote will be delivered by Gaylene Gould. She will consider what steps we can take to ensure the diverse communities that make up our country are reflected both on screen and in our cinema venues.

What makes an arts organisation truly inclusive and how can we work together to ensure a more inclusive picture? She will pose challenging questions about how our unconscious bias can influence our decision making, and encourage us to work toward a world where cinema audiences are thriving and people do not feel excluded in terms of disability, gender, ethnicity or sexual identity.

With a background in film exhibition, Gaylene Gould is a writer, broadcaster, coach and arts consultant with twenty years’ experience in the international cultural sector.

BFI Black Star: Programming diverse content for diverse audiences

As the BFI launch the Black Star season, which celebrates the range, versatility and power of black actors, we discuss and workshop ways to encourage audiences to take a (calculated!) risk on something different.  Using the Black Star season as our starting point, we explore what kinds of screenings and events you could host to build new and diverse audiences for your venue or film society, as well as expand your existing audience’s taste.  In this interactive workshop, we discuss your concerns about programming diverse content in your venue, and constructive ways to challenge audience perceptions and create engaging programmes.

Programmer Jemma Desai joins Gaylene Gould, writer Sophie Mayer and Broadway’s own Audience Engagement and Diversity Coordinator Sophia Ramcharan to lead the workshop.

How welcoming is your cinema for Deaf and Hard of Hearing audiences?

Deaf cinema clubs are popping up all over the country and your venue could host one too. But you need to think beyond simply adding subtitles to your programming if you want Deaf people to be a thriving and engaged audience in your venue.

Anne Darby from Nottingham Deaf Society is joined by Jodie Wilkinson, Public Engagement Coordinator at Glasgow Film Theatre and deaf filmmaker David Ellington to talk about how we can make our programmes more accessible to deaf and hard of hearing audiences, no matter what resources are available to us.

This event will be BSL interpreted.

How to run Dementia-friendly screenings

As we are living longer, the number of people suffering from dementia in later life is constantly increasing. Experts say ‘reminiscence therapy’ improves psychological well-being in dementia sufferers and may also improve their memory. Activities such as cinema-going that offer a change of scene, the chance to elicit and re-visit memories, restful entertainment, and an opportunity to bond with others are invaluable to dementia sufferers and their carers alike.

Join us as we hear from panellists who have set up popular dementia-friendly screenings including Jodie Wilkinson, Public Engagement Coordinator at Glasgow Film Theatre and Jonny Tull, Film Programmer at Tyneside Cinema to discuss the positive outcomes from this valuable community work.

Exhibitors who attend Screening Days know the difference it makes.

That’s why staff and volunteers of cinemas, mixed arts venues, film festivals, and film societies attend again and again. But if you haven’t come before, here’s five reasons Screening Days could be invaluable for you…

• Screening Days make your programming decisions easier: watching our amazing selection of the upcoming films lets you get clear on whether a film is right for your venue and how to make it work best in your programme.
• Screening Days are efficient: finding time to watch films in the busy and divided schedule of a film programmer is hard. Screening Days lets you cover a lot of ground with amazing access.
• Screening Days simplify marketing: knowing what audience you’re trying to target becomes much easier once you know the film directly and who in your community would want to come and see it.
• Screening Days gives you access to key industry players: we often have representatives from the BFI, Cinema for All, Film Audience Network and Filmbankmedia, as well as many major distributors in attendance. Screening Days is your chance to hear about funding, technology and opportunities that can mean just as much as what you put on the screen itself.
• Screening Days is a forum to share knowledge: gathering together this number of exhibitors in one place means you can keep up with developments from peers and learn from what is working for them.