Emagine Batavia offering dementia-friendly screenings

Emagine Entertainment carries the tagline of “The Magic of Movies and More,” a phrase guests especially channel at the theater’s Batavia location on the second Wednesday of each month.

That’s when Emagine Batavia, 550 N. Randall Road, hosts dementia-friendly screenings, allowing those with the cognitive disease and other memory issues to enjoy a moviegoing escape.

Auditoriums feature softer sound and ambient lighting for the films, which typically are selections of classic movies or musicals that encourage singing, dancing and interaction between guests and caregivers.

“We want to provide an environment that will be able to be suitable for all,” Emagine chief operating officer Trevor Baker said.

Emagine Batavia began offering dementia-friendly screenings shortly after opening in June 2023. The theater and select locations within the Troy, Mich.-based chain also provide sensory-friendly and open-caption screenings during set times each month.

“The success of this is consistency,” Baker said. “It’s not just showing it once and then crossing your fingers.”

Sensory-friendly screenings at Emagine’s Saline, Mich., location helped pave the way for those catered toward the dementia community.

In 2019, Jim Mangi, director of the nonprofit organization Dementia-Friendly Saline, approached Emagine after attending a sensory-friendly screening with a family member. He wondered whether the company considered similar accommodation for older adults.

Collaboration between Mangi and Emagine followed, then endured the COVID-19 pandemic before locations began offering the screenings as an option.

The effort at Emagine Batavia draws up to 40 guests each month, Baker said, thanks to ongoing promotion within the community.

Dementia-friendly screenings at Emagine Batavia are especially a passion project for senior manager Phillip Ball, whose wife, Joette, serves as executive director of the memory care community Ardent Courts of Geneva.

Caregivers frequently find joy in the experience, as well. “They have tears in their eyes,” Baker said. “’I haven’t seen my mom this happy,’ [or] ‘I haven’t seen her sing along to ‘Mamma Mia’ in a number of years and this was just such a pleasure to be able to come out and kind of have a routine of being able to have pop and popcorn again and be able to see it in a theater and sit with others.”