A screen that heals
Ukraine’s first movie theater for psychologically challenged people opens in Kyiv suburb
The opening of a stationary movie theater for psychologically challenged people in a psycho- neurological boarding school in the Kyiv suburb of Pushcha Vodytsia is a real breakthrough. It is a remarkable event and, in a sense, pivotal. Until now patients in these kinds of institutions did not have access to a full-fledged cultural life. Not so long ago physically and psychologically challenged people were treated like outcasts, and our society tried to hide them or push them away from various social activities. In comparison with the lives of invalids in Europe, the situation in Ukraine verges on barbarity.
The boarding school is home to 350 patients and 189 employees. All the necessary services are available here: from a barbershop to a shoemaker’s. A few years ago Germans helped build a joiner’s shop and a candle-making shop at the school.
When we arrived, the facility smelled of fresh paint: they had just finished painting the hall. Some of the residents met the journalists at the entrance: it was obvious that they don’t often get visitors. They were very happy to see their guests and did what they could to help us: show us the way, open a door, or simply smile and say hello.
The movie Podorozhni (Wayfarers) by Ihor Strembitsky was the first film screened in the movie theater. The winner of the Short Film Palme d’Or at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival, this movie was shot at this very boarding house and the stars of the film are its doctors and patients. Many of the people who appeared in the film were present in the theater and became very animated whenever they recognized themselves on the screen.
After the show the organizers told us about the movie theater. The equipment, worth $13,000, includes a video projector and a player compatible with all DVD and video cassette formats, a state-of-the-art acoustic system (six connected speakers located in different parts of the hall), a special screen suitable for daytime and evening screenings, and a satellite television system. Several movies were donated along with the equipment, including educational films and nature documentaries. As one of the doctors said, the patients also enjoy watching comedies and they love fairy tales. From now on they will be able to watch their favorite movies nearly every day.
A movie theater can be more than just a place of entertainment: in contemporary psychology there is a widespread rehabilitation practice called cinematherapy. It is part of group activities generally labeled “art therapy.” Contemporary art therapy comes in two varieties: first, when a psychologist works with artistic products created by the patient (drawings, clay models, and texts, such as fairy tales) and, second, when group therapy involves artistic creations made by someone else (paintings, sculptures, texts, films, and movies).
Cinematherapy falls into the second type of group therapy and affords solutions to several types of psychological tasks: specifying diagnoses of personal problems, speeding up therapeutic processes and the development of positive feelings, reinforcing doctor-patient relationships, training mental skills, solving patients’ family problems, and relieving psychological stress.
A screen that heals is a dream cherished by all producers. However, the main significance of this movie theater is that it proves our society is recovering.
