Plaza Community Cinema
Charity number: 1062570
Website: www.plazacinema.org.uk
Description:
The Plaza is a community cinema run by 9 salaried staff and 40 Volunteers, we are based in the heart of a deprived community, listed in the governments own top 10% deprivation index. Our aim is to inspire, educate and entertain through film. We do this through a programme of mainstream and arthouse film, a social club for the older members of the community and a weekly Saturday morning film and activities for children.
In addition to this we have established a dynamic and innovative education programme developed in partnership with schools, the LEA and Youth Service. This programme is accessed by schools in Sefton and Liverpool, Sefton Youth Service and Connexions.
In addition to the above we offer a wide range of educational experiences for people in the community. Short courses offering an introduction to filmmaking and editing are accessed by older members of the community as well as young people referred through the Youth Service and ex-offenders via Youth Offending Team. Films produced include reminiscence projects with older people, alcohol and drug awareness, issues relating to staying safe sex and relationship education.
Plaza Arts are creative workshops led by artists, musicians, performers and filmmakers held during the school holidays for children aged 8 to 18 years.
Film in Focus programme enable schools and young people NEET (not in education, employment or training) to use film as a catalyst to explore the aspects of the curriculum or issues impacting on their lives such as drugs and racism. This is linked to development workshops, led by creative practitioners who enable the young people to examine things in greater detail via discussion, creative writing, visual and performing arts.
Just recently in partnership with Positive Futures we started our Autism Friendly Screenings, where children and young people on the autism spectrum can enjoy a social evening with family and friends without fear of intimidation. This has been met with much enthusiasm from all parties taking part, leading on from the success of this we are planning some creative workshops with children and young people on the higher end of the autism spectrum. Also some therapeutic workshops for siblings of disabled children as they struggle to cope with feelings of displacement within the family setting.