A touring movie theatre in the hospital environment

As Alain Chabat, former member of the “Nuls” brigade, proclaims on the home page of Les toiles enchantées website, “If children can’t go to the movies, the movies must come to them.” The non-profit organization he set up in 1997 travels around the Paris region, the French provinces and further afield (Belgium, Mali, Burkina Faso, etc.) to offer film screenings in paediatric hospitals and rehabilitation centres for sick and disabled children..

Each show is an event. First, the films shown are the same as those featured in “real” movie theatres: the latest releases – even, in some cases, previews. Secondly, for each session, the organization’s team shows up at the hospital or the specialized centre with a ton of equipment (screen, 35 mm projector etc.). For a few hours, the refectory, canteen or waiting room is decorated with a huge white screen. Everybody meets up there, even the children that can’t leave their beds or do without their medical apparatus. It’s a moment of magic but also for meeting other people. “You make new friends that you can’t meet when you’re in your hospital room,” says one child.

In 2008, the two touring teams showed 31 films in almost 300 screenings for a hundred or so establishments catering for 10,000 children. Each screening costs 1,000 euros, financed by private donations. In parallel, the organization runs film workshops encouraging the young patients to try their hand at writing film scripts and making films, assisted by actors and directors like Nils Tavernier, Isabelle Nanty and Benoît Cohen.