Movie Mavens
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Movie Mavens

Let’s go to the movies! Families are welcomed back to Free First Saturday with screenings of artful shorts by young Minnesota filmmakers, adventurous hands-on activities, and some very silly rhymes.

Free First Saturday activities are recommended for all ages and available on a first-come, first-served basis.

The Big Screen: Girls in the Director’s Chair

1 am and 1:30 pm: For all ages
3:30 pm: For ages 13 and older due to mature subject matter

Part of the annual Women with Vision film festival, Girls in the Director’s Chair showcases videos by girls ages 8 to 18. The selections range from animation and documentaries to interplanetary adventure.

Art-making for the Whole Family: Flipping Fun Phenakistoscopes, 12 noon–4 pm

Create your own low-budget moving picture! Twin Cities film/video artist Marjorie Thieman shows you how to make a movie from paper and wheels—an idea based on a 19th-century toy called a phenakistoscope (pronounced fen-ah-KISS-toe-scope).

Family Gallery Adventures, 12 noon and 2 pm

Did you know that there was enough concrete poured in the new building and parking garage to fill nine Olympic-size swimming pools? Discover all sorts of fun facts about the expanded Walker on an architectural tour. Then play a game of I Spy in the afternoon with a Walker tour guide in the gallery for Shadowland: An Exhibition as a Film.

WAC-ky Tales, 1 pm

Meet Dean Otto, the Walker’s assistant curator of film/video, who reads May’s book of the month, Gerald McBoing Boing by Dr. Seuss. This hilarious rhyming story is about a small boy named Gerald, whose ability to make strange sounds leads to success.