AD | Filmosophy for Families Showroom Cinema Review

AD | Filmosophy for Families Showroom Cinema Review

The Showroom Cinema in Sheffield are showing some beautiful family films this month as part of their Filmosophy for Families season. The films are showing on Saturday mornings at 10 am and are followed by free workshops led by experienced philosophers from Thinking Space. 

During these workshops, viewers get a change to explore some of the film’s philosophical themes through dialogue task, games, conversation and reflective drawing or writing. All materials are supplied and the activities are adapted to the ages of the people attending the workshop.

The events are part of Film Feels Curious, a UK-wide cinema season, supported by the National Lottery and BFI Film Audience Network.

You can read all about the programme here on my blog in my article from the other week and also here on the Showroom’s website.

I attended the Filmosophy for Families screening of Ernest & Celestine with my 6-year-old on Saturday and it was such a lovely experience. This particular screening was a relaxed, autism-friendly screening. These conditions mean that the screening was sold to 75% capacity, that you could choose any seat that was free, that there were no adverts or trailers, that the volume was lower and the light set to remain on a low setting.

There was also the option to go into another room where there were tables and chairs available for anyone who needed a break to do something else for a bit. I think this is such a good idea! My 6-year-old struggles to sit through a full film and the volume is usually too loud in most cinemas so I’m really pleased to see this made available.

Before the film started, we were greeted and told about the space in the other room and about the workshop afterwards. In Sweden where I’m from, it’s quite common that someone comes and welcomes everyone before a film starts in smaller cinemas but I’d never experienced this in the UK before. The Showroom in Sheffield is a really friendly cinema!

The film itself was in French with large subtitles that my daughter could follow along with. Ernest & Celeste is a sweet film about the unlikely friendship between a bear called Ernest and a mouse called Celestine. In their world, bears are in charge and mice are oppressed. The duo meets and their friendship blossoms until other bears and mice find out and disagree, meaning that they have to hide and fight for their friendship.

It’s a film with many layers and it’s a good watch for both children and adults who will take away different things from the same film.

After a quick break after the film, we joined the team from Thinking Space in another room for the workshop. We were welcomed with biscuits and drinks which was lovely on this very hot day. There weren’t that many of us joining the workshop this week but I think that was because most of the families who’d watched the film had very young children.

The kids who did attend, joined in for the discussion at the start and then moved on to creating lots of drawings (some based on the film) while the adults discussed the important themes of the film. It was a great activity! Most of the time, we don’t take enough time to think about things like this properly so it was great to dive into the topics of the film and discuss some of the biggest questions of life while making parallels to the film we had just watched.

I would highly recommend visiting the Showroom in Sheffield for one of the remaining Filmosophy for Families screenings:

• Saturday 16th July: Liyana (2017) [PG]
• Saturday 23rd July: The Truman Show (1998) [PG]

The two remaining films are more suitable for slightly older children so I think they’ll be more likely to join in with the discussions in the workshop afterwards too. This could be such a special and rewarding experience to do with your family! Book your tickets here.

Collaboration.