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Je viens de rentrer du cinéma où notre famille allait profiter d’un visionnement adapté aux besoins spécifiques et sensoriels du film « schtroumpfs ». Nous avons promis à notre fils que nous allions voir les schtroumpfs le samedi 6 mai 2017. Pour tous les parents qui ont un enfant diagnostiqué sur le spectre, vous savez exactement comment il est important pour nous de faire savoir à nos enfants des événements à venir des jours, même des semaines à l’avance.
Donc, nous sommes arrivés au théâtre vers 10 heures ce matin et essayé d’ouvrir les portes, elles étaient verrouillés. Nous avons donc décidé d’attendre. Ensuite, un employé est venu à la porte et a demandé ce que nous faisions ici, nous lui avons dit avec gentillesse que nous sommes là pour la visualisation sensorielle. Elle a ensuite répondu que le visionnment a été annulé car ils n’ont pas reçu le film « schtroumpfs ».
Le visage de notre fils a passé de l’excitation à la déception et à la colère. Il attendait avec impatience ce visionnement, il en parlait toute la semaine. En tant que défenseur de la sensibilisation à l’autisme, j’ai décidé d’écrire un courriel à cineplex odeon pour exprimer ma déception.
Voici ce courriel (envoyé en anglais):
To whom it may concern,
Thank you!,
Thank you for letting us know that the sensory friendly viewing was cancelled at the movie theater door. We told our son all week that we would be going to see the smurfs movie this Saturday, only to be told, by one of your employees, at the door, that the viewing was cancelled because they have not received the movie for the sensory friendly viewing.
As a parent who has a son diagnosed on the spectrum of autism, I do not think that you are aware just how important it is for us to know about cancellations days, even weeks in advance. This cancellation, changed the whole day for us as we have to deal with our sons disappointment AND his anger towards us because we promised him a viewing of the Smurfs movie on Saturday May 6th.
To add salt to the wound, your employee told us that the movie was being shown in Dieppe. This is just an idea but maybe sit all of your employees down and explain to them the reason of the sensory friendly viewing. I do not think they get exactly why we have to lower the volume OR leave the lights on.
I myself am an advocate for autism awareness, if you need someone to come and explain to them what autism is about, I will gladly do a presentation and show them just how complex autism is.
I really love the fact that we have sensory friendly viewings available in our area but please take the time to consider the ramification of a last minute decision. I know a lot of parents in the Moncton area who are now dealing with a very difficult situation in their hands because of this cancellation.
I have checked on Facebook to see if there was any notifications but came with nothing. This is unacceptable, please take the required measures to remedy to this situation.
Thank you
Patrick Hardy
Father, author, illustrator and advocate of autism awareness.
J’espère que ce courriel sera considéré et lu par les pouvoirs qui seront à Cineplex et qu’ils prendront les mesures pour remédier à la situation.
Un autre excellent exemple de pourquoi mes livres sont si importants. Cette situation m’a cependant inspirée pour le sujet du 5e livre maintenant.
Apportez plus de sensibilisation, c’est la mission.
**MISE À JOUR** Cineplex répond
Le 6 mai à 17h26, cineplex m’a envoyé une réponse:
Hello Patrick,
Thank you for contacting Cineplex Guest Services.
I am very sorry to hear about this experience. We have been notified by the theatre of this cancellation, and it turns out the theatre had been trying to receive a certain file of the film to show the sensory friendly screening but unfortunately did not receive it in time. As a result, they had no choice but to cancel the show. Management did advise us they updated their showtimes on the website on Thursday night to reflect this change.
I will definitely forward your feedback regarding this experience to our Cineplex Trinity Drive location for their internal review and consideration to help ensure that something like this does not occur again in future. Additionally, I would be happy to offer you three (3) Courtesy passes so that you can come back for another movie at Cineplex on us. At your earliest convenience, please provide me with your full mailing address so that I can have these passes mailed out to you. Once again we sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and I look forward to hearing back from you.
Kind regards,
Cassandra D.
Cineplex Entertainment | Guest Services
Ce n’était pas satisfaisant pour moi, ils m’ont simplement offert la politique courante du bureau, pour me pousser hors de la pile de plaintes, dans l’espoir que cela m’arrêterait.
Eh bien:
Hello Cassandra,
thank you for your reply. Even though the gesture of giving us three tickets for free was a nice gesture, this is not what I am looking for.
A child diagnosed on the spectrum of autism is constantly bombarded by input, may it be visuals, sounds, smells and touch. For some, these inputs are so aggressive that they need anchors to rely on in their routine, so that there is some kind of order in the chaos.
The sensory friendly viewing event is one of those anchors for a lot of these kids. To have it cancelled, and told at the door, just creates more chaos for these kids which they did not need.
Trinity Cineplex Odeon say that they have not received the movie file in time. When was the movie file transferred to them? Could it be sent a week in advance?
Those three tickets you were offering us was a nice gesture but here is our reality. We do not go to the movie theater because the sound is way too loud and the lights are completely out, which does not go well with our son. This is why we attend the Sensory Friendly Viewing events because it is a lot let aggressive.
This has been the second time that someone has now offered us to go view a regular showing of a movie. Isn’t there anyone out there in your company that is Autism Aware?
I believe that an autism awareness course would be beneficiary for all the employees and managers working in the theaters that offer the Sensory Friendly Viewing option. That way, a last minute cancellation would not happen.
Thank you for the attention you are putting into this.
Patrick Hardy
Father, author, illustrator and advocate for autism awareness
