Belmont Filmhouse closure a ‘devastating blow’ for those with visual or hearing impairments

The Belmont Filmhouse closure will be a “devastating blow” for those with visual or hearing impairments, says a north-east charity.

The cinema regularly put on captioned screenings of popular films to help those who are deaf or blind.

On Thursday morning, the closure of Belmont Filmhouse was announced after its parent charity went into administration.

Twenty members of staff were made immediately redundant.

Belmont supported the deaf and blind

Graham Findlay, the chief executive of North East Sensory Services said the closure will impact those who are deaf, blind or have visual or hearing impairments.

He said: “The Belmont was a fantastic example of how things should be done and the staff there were always very supportive.

“They also recently invested in audio description technology for blind and visually impaired audiences, and some films had British Sign Language transcriptions as well as subtitles.”

North East Sensory Services (Ness) is one of the oldest charities in the north-east, and has been supporting people with sensory impairments since 1879.

Belmont an ‘example’ to follow

Belmont went the extra mile by sometimes even providing an interpreter in the foyer to assist deaf customers.

Last summer, film fan Charlotte Little, who is hard of hearing and visually impaired, said Belmont was an example for other cinemas to follow. 

She says that while major chains occasionally provide captioned films, they are often poorly promoted and at awkward times.

She said: “They put them on in the mornings or right after the working day finishes and completely fail to promote them, then wonder why nobody turns up.”

“If a small, independent cinema like that can do it, so can the larger chains which have movie theatres in every part of the country.

“There’s something like one in six people who have some kind of hearing loss, so it’s a huge potential market.”

What will happen if Belmont stays shut?

Concerns have now been raised that the large cinema chains will not step up to fill the gap left by Belmont.

However, there might be hope for the cinema after a meeting by the group Save Belmont Cinema was organised on social media.

Politicians from around the north-east have also rallied to ask the Scottish Government to intervene.

Mr Findlay added: “People with sensory loss deserve to enjoy the cinema experience in the same way as everyone else.”