ABSTRACT

the reason that it has been able to produce efficient, effective and also interesting output and results in a

shorter span of time. Thus, it results in making the process and outcomes, beneficial for everyone. Thus, the

aim of this paper is to study and explain the various AI tools and software which can be used in the different

stages of cinema therapy sessions so as to make them more successful, effective and also to streamline the

process of they are conducted.

Keywords: AI, Cinema Therapy, Emotional and Psychological Wellbeing.

This study has been conducted as a part of the ICSSR Major Research Project 2023-2024.

Integrating Artificial Intelligence into Cinematherapy Practice and Research

Artificial Intelligence or AI tools and software are being used in various fields such as education, finance,

energy, governance and advertising nowadays. They are one of the key topics being discussed in the world

and quickly nowadays. In addition to the fields in which AI tools and software are being used now, another

field or mode of therapy in which they can be used successfully to assist the work being done by humans is

cinema therapy.

Cinema therapy is the usage of feature films for therapeutic purposes. Cinema therapy has been used

successfully to treat mental health issues such as anxiety and depression. It has also been used for purposes

such as developing religious tolerance in students with multicultural education insights and to correct of a

personality psychological defence at a young age.

The first step in conducting cinema therapy sessions start with the process of selecting and assigning films to

the clients in professional practice by the therapists, which are related to the mental health issues faced by the

therapists. Then, the next step is that the clients watch the film according to some specified guidelines by the

screen the films to the latter. Then discussions were usually conducted with them by the researchers about their

feelings and thoughts to facilitate their learning from the film to solve their mental health issues or improve

their wellbeing.

The practice of cinema therapy is very popular in some countries across the world such as the United

Kingdom and the United States of America(USA). There are also a couple of mental health organizations in

India which conduct cinema therapy sessions for the general public.

As the process of conducting cinema therapy sessions entails various aspects such as choosing suitable movies

and also editing films to be screened during cinema therapy sessions, using Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools

and software in various suitable stages of the process can successfully act as a supplement to the work done by

the therapists or researchers. They can also complete the work quickly and efficiently and help them to conduct

suitable options.

It also analyses and explains about some of the problems which can occur while using AI tools and software

for cinema therapy practice and research in general. In addition to this, as there were no prior studies about the

use of AI in cinema therapy, it also aims to serve as a basic foundation for future research regarding the use of

AI in cinema therapy.

The objectives of the research study are:

To study how can AI tools or software be used in the process of conducting cinema therapy sessions and

research.

To identify and explain about the AI tools and software which can be used in the various steps of conducting

previous studies conducted about the use of AI tools and software in cinema therapy. Other reasons include

that AI tools and software are still a relatively new concept worldwide and there was no information about AI

tools and software being used in cinema therapy sessions. Thus. it was not possible to gather primary data for

this study through in-depth interviews with cinema therapists and academicians etc, for the purpose of this

and knowledge about cinema therapy sessions and research and also analysing what type of and which AI tools

and software were suitable to be used in the various stages of cinematherapy practice and research.

The various types of sources of secondary data which have been used in this study are websites and online

articles. First, the criteria for selecting tools that could be used in the various steps of cinema therapy sessions

and enhance the effectiveness of the cinema therapy sessions was determined and written. Then information

about these AI tools and software could enhance cinematherapy practice and research was obtained from

searching on the internet.

Then some such suitable AI tools and software which could be very useful for the therapists and researchers in

the various stages of the cinema therapy sessions and research were listed. Then some of these tools, along

with their functions and how could they enhance the effectiveness of cinema therapy session and also assist in

conduct cinema therapy research successfully, were explained.

This was to provide therapists and researchers a peek into some suitable AI tools and software which could be

practice and research are:

They should perform a function or functions related to the various stages of cinematherapy practice and

research.

They should help cinema therapists and researchers to conduct cinema therapy sessions or research

successfully.

They should perform their tasks and functions successfully and provide the desired outputs for the cinema

therapists and researchers for conducting cinema therapy sessions and research.

Artificial Intelligence based software in film editing

Artificial Intelligence based video editing software such as Adobe Premiere Pro, Wondershare Filmora, Final

Cut Pro and DaVinci Resolve can be used to edit films to be shown during the cinema therapy sessions by the

sessions where they can be used by therapists or researchers to suitably and effectively edit their films, if

required.

They can be edited according to the parts of the films which would be suitable to aid in the recovery and

therapy sessions

There are some Artificial Intelligence software and websites which have been developed which can detect the

emotions or can provide detailed insights about the behaviours of the participants before, during or after the

cinema therapy sessions. This can do done by taking photographs of the behaviours of participants before,

during and after the cinema therapy sessions and uploading them in the Artificial Intelligence(AI) based

behavioural analysis websites.

After uploading the photographs in the websites, the therapists or researchers conducting cinema therapy

These insights are based on the queries asked to it by the users. However, the limitation of this tool is that : it

only accepts documents or images in the form of jpg or jpeg, txt and csv etc.

There are also other Artificial Intelligence tools and websites which provide facial emotional recognition by

uploading photographs in the websites, which would then scan them and also provide details about the

emotions of the people in the photographs.

AI based software and websites like these can play a very useful tool in helping in the most crucial aspect of

conducting cinema therapy sessions: helping the therapists and researchers to understand and evaluate the

impact of the cinema therapy session on the behaviour and emotions of the clients or research objects.

They can be used during the second step and third step of cinema therapy sessions; screening films for the

clients or research subjects to analyse their emotions and behaviour during the film screenings and the

Therapists and researchers can also obtain valence and engagement statistics for their videos while conducting

and involvement and total emotional tones of the clients or research subjects throughout the cinema therapy

sessions. Thus, they can help the therapists and researchers to analyse the effectiveness of the cinema therapy

There are some Artificial Intelligence websites and software like the Artificial Intelligence chatbot Google

The therapists or researchers, to create suitable questions for discussion about the films and how the students

can learn from them and their characters as a part of cinema therapy, can access the discussion questions

movies as part of the classroom activities.(which are mandatory for using this feature) Then, the feature would

These tools and websites can be used: in the second stage of conducting cinema therapy session: framing

guidelines or asking questions to the clients or research subjects to introduce them about the film and screening

There are also various AI data analysis and visualization software such as Domo, Microsoft Power BI,

Insight7 and MAXQDA which enables the therapists or researchers to analyse their quantitative or qualitative

data which they have gathered from their cinema therapy sessions effectively and successfully.

AI data analysis software such as Polymer also helps the therapists or researchers to convert their databases

into easy and interactive databases and it also enables the therapists or researchers to sort and filter the datasets

for further analysis. The software also uses algorithms to identify patterns and relationships within the data and

participants and also to make meaningful insights and recommendations.