BFI FAN Webinar: Accessible Cinema for Audiences with Chronic Illness

Join us for the next BFI FAN Equality, Diversity & Inclusion In Focus webinar.

Led by BFI FAN Champion Charlie Little (Access Consultant, Matchbox Cine), EDI in Focus brings meaningful conversations on access and inclusion to UK-wide Film Hub members.

Our next webinar will focus on accessible cinema experiences for audiences living with chronic illness. Charlie will be joined by guest speakers Louise Gardner and Raquel Meseguer to discuss Watershed’s Horizontal Cinema and MSD (Masked and Socially Distanced) Screenings.

Using Watershed as a case study, we will explore how film exhibitors can facilitate accessible screenings for chronically ill audiences and immunocompromised audiences. The session will explore Watershed’s approach towards marketing, engagement, and programming. There will be practical tips, tricks and takeaways that you can apply to your own events – plus, there will be time for questions.

→ Register to join

About the speakers

Charlie Little (they/she | Access Consultant, Matchbox Cine)
Charlie Little (they/she) is an Access Consultant (Matchbox Cine) and BFI FAN’s Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Champion, working with exhibitors and film organisations on access and inclusion for Deaf and disabled audiences. Charlie brings their lived experience of disability to their work, focusing on holistic practices within the film exhibition sector.

Louise Gardner (she/her, Director of Audiences, Watershed)
Louise joined Watershed in the mid 90s and now has lead responsibility for the Audiences, Inclusion, Brand and Comms. Louise has held a variety of roles, all relating to marketing and communications, over the years at Watershed. She previously worked at Cornerhouse in Manchester (now HOME) and Chapter in Cardiff. This is Louise’s second time at Watershed – she worked in Box Office straight out of university for a year and half when all tickets were sold manually using a roll of tickets coming out of a slot after you’d punched in the number you required – ranging from 1 to 5!

Raquel Meseguer (she/her | Artist/Theatre Practitioner, Unchartered Collective)
Raquel’s work straddles dance, installation, performative conversations and photo-documentary. She works with rest and horizontality to create theatrical encounters that explore the lived experience of invisible disability. Her project A Crash Course in Cloudspotting is an installation and performance, an app, a community and a digital archive of resting stories. Raquel co-founded Lost Dog dance, and was an Associate Artist for Paradise Lost (lies unopened beside me) and Juliet and Romeo. She was nominated for an Olivier Award for her Dramaturgy on Lost Dog’s Ruination. She was co-artistic director of Candoco Dance Company from January 2024 to July 2025. She works with organisations who wish to extend a warm welcome to the chronically ill community and declare themselves rest friendly.