Impact case study database

The Cultural Memory and British Cinema-going of the 1960s project ( i) demonstrated that individual memories of 1960s cinema-going are an important resource of cultural knowledge for this period ( R2, R3, R4) and that there is a disparity between the memories of cinema-going in the 1960s and the narrative created and popularised by the media and passed on to subsequent generations ( R5). The follow-on project Remembering 1960s British Cinema-going ( ii) revised such popular narratives by recreating and discussing the experiences of 1960s British cinema-going at 44 events held between 2017 and 2018 (3 immersive events and 41 film screenings and/or talks) attended by c.4,000 people across the UK. Collective reminiscence of this kind with diverse audiences “brings many benefits,” comments the Coordinator of the Masbro Community Centre in Hammersmith, who helped organise an event in 2018 ( A). These benefits to wellbeing included: making participants feel “part of a collective history”; providing the opportunity “to look back and compare our lives then and now, appreciating what we have/how far we’ve come”; “evaluating how things have changed – society, values, mores, fashions, etc. for better or worse”; and encouraging a “sense of social cohesion – our shared experience brings us closer together” ( A).

The events enhanced public awareness of the significance of cinema in people’s lives, while also encouraging closer collaboration between third sector institutions, stimulating new programmes/activities and/or helping recruit/retain members. As a result of attending project events, over 90% of the 260 participants who provided feedback knew, understood, or remembered more about the nature of 1960s cinema-going. 72% attested that, following the event concerned, they were inspired to research the 1960s and/or cinema-going further ( B), which is facilitated by the freely-accessible UCL Library Digital Collection gathered by the original project. Between its creation in May 2017 and December 2020, 879 documents (interviews/questionnaires) were downloaded by anonymous users ( B).

**Using Immersive Cinema to Advance Public Understanding of History and Civic Society and Business Partners’ Strategic Aims **

Three large “immersive 60s cinema” events held in 2017-18 recreated the experience of going to the cinema in 60s Britain and changed cinema-goers’ understanding of an iconic decade in modern British history. The research team drew on their oral history interviews and questionnaires to direct student actors from the UCL Drama Society in playing the parts of torch-wielding usherettes, the cinema manager, and protesters to more accurately evoke the 1960s experience as described in ( R2) and ( R5). The first event, attended by 220 people, was at the Theatre Royal, Wakefield, Yorkshire, in collaboration with the Wakefield Civic Society; the second and third were at the Prince Charles Cinema, London. In total, almost 900 people attended immersive screenings, a kind of experience one attendee described as “not done enough.” In their feedback, respondents demonstrated their increased understanding of the experience of cinema-going in the 1960s: “now I know […] that the films played in a cycle without proper start times”; “learnt about the history of cinema”; “led to conversation about gender roles in society and music” ( B). Comments also attested to wider wellbeing benefits achieved through reminiscence: “the sharing of memories is always so therapeutic”; “it reminded me of so much I had forgotten” ( B).

For collaborating organisations, the events supported their strategic aims to extend and diversify their audiences and shaped subsequent programming. The chair of the Wakefield Civic Society became involved with the project because it provided ‘an opportunity to reflect on my own cinema-going experiences of the 1960s’ and encouraged the Society’s members to do the same. The screening in November 2013 of Kes (1969) – set in Yorkshire – showed, he explains, “a period in our social history that [members] would have themselves experienced and it gave them an occasion to share their memories as part of a collective audience made up of many from their peer group” together “with people who hadn’t been born at the time.” ( C) The success of Kes led to screenings being incorporated into the Society’s events programme (total audience 270), as well as an “immersive 60s cinema” screening of Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush (1968) in 2017. The chair commented that the showing of Kes and the later “immersive 60s cinema” screening played a significant part in his strategy to attract new members while retaining existing supporters by convincing them “they are getting something enjoyable for their membership” ( C). In addition, he and other members have subsequently begun making documentary films connected with Wakefield’s heritage.

The two “immersive” events at the Prince Charles Cinema in 2018 sold out their 330-seat auditorium. The Head of Programming reported that the idea for the events was “so well thought out and researched” that it was the best “in the 13 years I’ve been here.” “Bringing the period to life was an incredibly unique way of developing an immersive event … and it worked incredibly well.” He noted that ‘having an evening when the entire building took a step back in time certainly lit a fire under our desire to discover more’ about the history of the Prince Charles itself. Building on this base, in summer 2020, the cinema launched its own “Nostalgia Project,” designed to “help us piece together even more of our history in the hopes that should we run such an event again we could incorporate even more specific elements of the period” ( D).

Fostering Adult Learning, Wellbeing and Inclusion among Diverse Older Audiences

The project’s other 41 introductory talks and post-film discussions elucidating the 1960s context in which the films had originally been seen ( R2, R3, R4, R5) promoted wellbeing through sociability, allowing people to share memories within a community and learn from each other. They enhanced understanding and stimulated further investigation and creative production: “I am an artist and it was super inspiring!”; “the event has prompted memories of life in the 1960’s […which] will now form part of my personal written memoir” ( B).

Eight events for adult learning groups interested in cinema or history within the further education charity, the University of the Third Age (U3A) reached a total audience of 558. In line with U3A’s vision to “make lifelong learning […] a reality for all third agers,” the events increased cultural understanding of cinema-going in the 1960s. “It was a kick start to do some research myself’ one attendee noted, while another ‘increased my knowledge of local history” and another was inspired to join their local U3A film group (B). One attendee at a U3A event in East Renfrewshire was inspired to carry out further research via their local Facebook group called “Lost Glasgow” on the project's discovery that double or love seats in the back row were traditionally known as “chummies” in Glasgow. Some of these events also led to the work of the local U3A being disseminated more widely, helping the organisation achieve its mission by raising its profile and facilitating its growth. An event in Leyburn attracted members from Richmond and other surrounding U3As and, together with coverage in the local newspaper, publicised to a wider audience the existing work of the venue, the local Community and Arts Centre, and its programme of film screenings (U3A Organiser, E). Feedback from these events frequently highlighted their promotion of wellbeing and community engagement: “Reminiscence is always of value when you get to a certain age,” comments an U3A organiser in Leyburn, “and being able to participate in the discussions afterwards […] is very important in keeping the brain healthy” ( E). Likewise, for one respondent, a 2018 event in East Renfrewshire “[h]elped organise my memories of very varied cinema-going experience” and “[g]ave a greater grasp of strands in 60s films” ( B).

398 people also attended eight screenings in local community centres/artistic spaces in Manchester, Salford, Leeds, Sheffield, Glasgow, Newcastle, and London, which increased understanding of historical cinema-going and led to the creation of community-led cinema clubs. The event at Preston Community Library, Wembley, was accompanied by an exhibition on the history of local cinema-going in the 1960s created by the library staff. Feedback emphasised the importance of remembering as a community activity: “As a group event, we were better able to trigger each other’s recollections of standing for the national anthem etc” ( B). A sold-out screening and discussion for 135 attendees at the Partisan Collective Arts Centre in Manchester, the Collective reported, “was highly attuned to our members’ interests and provided much needed income.” This income “subsidised the free and affordable use of the space for groups including women’s groups, refugee welfare organisations and tenants’ unions.” The audience “was very diverse in terms of gender, racial background and class [… and] age.” The event aided recruitment to the Centre and, as a consequence of the speaker’s discussion of 1960s cinema clubs, led directly to the organisation of two new cinema clubs by members “to reflect diverse voices and experience,” while also inspiring another Manchester-based music venue, Yes, to screen films for the first time ( F).

The project’s research-led engagement with marginalised and diverse audiences ( D) gave members of these communities an opportunity to consider, critique and reflect on aspects of their histories as represented in 60s films, and served to promote wellbeing and social inclusion. Events included a screening of To Sir, With Love (1967) in collaboration with the New Black Film Collective at the Picturehouse, Stratford, London, with an audience of 164 older local British residents of African and Caribbean heritage in October 2017. Respondents at this event commented that the film and discussion stimulated their personal memories. The choice of film prompted some to relate it to their own experience as immigrants: “brought back memories of coming to the UK from the Caribbean – cross-cultural differences” ( B). The Coordinator of the Masbro Elders project helped organise a talk/discussion in May 2018. “Our members, on the whole,” she wrote, “represent a cohort of elders who came to this country from the Caribbean or South Asia […] and have faced many barriers to accessing higher education, the arts and culture.” She believed the most important long-term benefit for this group lay “in being listened to and having their own experiences and memories appreciated and validated […] This positive outcome has given me inspiration and ambition to pursue further encounters of this nature” ( A).

Five LGBTQI+ events (including screenings at Manchester Pride and the IRIS Film Festival in Cardiff) also reached a total audience of 700 people. The screenings and discussions uncovered an often under-appreciated element of the queer British experience, the intersections of politics, leisure and entertainment. Attendees valued this opportunity to learn about “how culture and social policy directly impacted upon cinema going” as well as the combination of the research, which “contextualis[ed] the experiences of gay and queer men, which were then, shown in the film,” with memory-sharing: “there were wonderful anecdotes from oral histories of cinema going by gay men in the 1960s” ( B).

Studies show the therapeutic benefits for people with dementia of rehearsing long-term memories and the positive effect this has on their care-givers (Cotelli, Manenti and Zanetti, 2012). Research such as ( R2), ( R3) and ( R5) was used to spur memory-sharing by audiences at dementia-friendly screenings. Wellbeing and inclusion were also enhanced for attendees at project events in four UK care homes (total audience 98) and a screening and discussion of The Pink Panther (1963) to an audience of 61 at Glasgow Film Theatre. One respondent wrote that “the return of some long-forgotten memories has been a joy.” Others highlighted the significance of the event in creating an opportunity for both “spending time with my mother and enhancing my understanding of 20th century cinema” ( B).

Enhancing Understanding of A-level History for Students and Teachers

Although the primary participants in this project’s impact activities were older adults, it also provided A-level students and teachers with a greater depth of knowledge about a crucial decade in modern British history. Five events attracted 354 students and their teachers; the largest of these was the British Film Institute A-level Study Day for 220 students. This event incorporated talks drawing upon ( R2), ( R4) and ( R5) and demonstrated how to use materials from the project database in schools to shed light on 1960s British history. Feedback from students indicated enhanced learning and understanding of key topics: “helped me to a greater understanding of the 1960s and how it changed social attitudes”; “It demonstrated the generation divide that I didn’t understand before” ( B). 79% of students who returned feedback said that they learned more about the subject ( B). Positive feedback from individual school workshops attested to enhanced learning: “this session provided me with a unique learning experience and enriched me with relevant knowledge for my History of Modern Britain exam”; “It introduced new ways of approaching the 1960s as well as introducing new types of sources” ( B). Many of the participating schools had diverse student cohorts. One Lecturer at City of Wolverhampton College notes that many of his students come from an area “with stubbornly low levels of educational achievement and significant socio-economic disadvantage” ( G). He wrote that the Study Day encouraged students “to develop confidence in their academic ability” and aspire to university-level study and “was invaluable in helping learners develop their source responses for the Modern British paper and their use of sources in their coursework.” Furthermore, R2, R3, R4 and R5 helped A-level students “challenge the notion that a strict hierarchy of importance exists in the study of history, and in particular social history and oral testimonies from the twentieth century are less valuable than ‘significant’ national or global events” ( G).