We all need a place to go where there’s no pressure to be anyone else but ourselves – Deaf people are no exception. Watershed has spent years building an inclusive space where Deaf and hearing audiences connect through cinema and conversation. But we need your support.
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Bristol’s Deaf community has lost vital spaces, including the closure of the city’s primary Deaf club which was a social lifeline for 142 years. Various research including a major study of nearly 15,000 adults found that engagement with cultural events is consistently linked to higher life satisfaction and better mental health. However, in an Inclusive Cinema survey, 91% of Deaf people reported too few subtitled screenings, and 61% said staff lacked awareness of their needs.
At Watershed, we create space for Deaf and hearing audiences to experience the joy of films and storytelling. Our Deaf Conversations about Cinema events, now in their 10th year, offer Deaf, hard-of-hearing, and hearing audiences a space to come together to watch and discuss film. We train staff in BSL, offer BSL-interpreted and captioned screenings within our programming and champion Deaf representation, showcasing films by and about Deaf and BSL communities to celebrate Deaf culture on screen.
