Discover the history of cinema in the Walker’s newly remodeled self-select cinema. The Bentson Mediatheque is a place to make new discoveries in moving image and get reacquainted with old favorites. Choose from more than 200 titles from the Ruben/Benston Moving Image Collection, or select one of our specially curated playlists accessible via touchscreen controls. Unique to the Walker, the Bentson Mediatheque offers a one-of-a-kind cinema experience.
Featured Playlists on Target Free Thursday Nights
December 8: 10 x 10
From silent-era classics and Soviet propaganda animation to the visual pranks of Fluxus film and 1970s Pop-inspired video art, these 10 short films tell a story in 10 minutes or less. 1902–2004, 67 min.
December 15: Two Films by William Klein
William Klein’s time as a Vogue magazine fashion photographer was the inspiration for his first feature film, Who Are You, Polly Maggoo?, a gleeful satire of the fashion industry. Preceded by Contacts, a close look at Klein’s editing process. 1966/1983, 120 min.
December 22: Walker Moving Image Commissions
This program features new works by Moyra Davey, James Richards, Shahryar Nashat, Uri Aran, and Leslie Thornton, responding to the works of Derek Jarmon, Marcel Broodthaers, and Bruce Conner. 2015–2016, 73 min.
December 29: Hans Richter and Buster Keaton
Buster Keaton’s 1926 Civil War–era parody The General, one of his biggest artistic risks, is now considered among the best American films ever made. Preceded by Hans Richter’s animated short Ghost Before Breakfast. 1926/1927–1928, 114 min.
January 5: Love Tapes: Series 18
In the Love Tapes series of more than 800 short videos, artist Wendy Clarke documents individuals’ personal definitions of the meaning of love. 1981, 59 min.
January 12: C.A.V.E. (Festival of Cinematic, Audio, and Visual Experimentation)
Featuring experimental moving image works from artists and curators across North America, the program also includes titles from the Walker’s Ruben/Bentson Moving Image Collection. Presented in collaboration with Cellular Cinema. This program will be ASL interpreted.
January 19: Contemportentary
Each film in this program is a ghost that haunts our contemporary condition. They zigzag across the decades and conjure the morass, absurdity, dissonance, and violence that we have internalized and normalized. Featuring works by Dara Birnbaum, Kenneth Anger, Peggy Ahwesh, Tony Oursler, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul at their most mysterious, blasphemous, erotic, obscene, and prophetic. Programmed by Hannah Piper-Burns. 1963–2012, 117 min.
January 26: Wild Wild West
Lawrence Schiller and L.M. Kit Carson’s The American Dreamer is a documentary that focuses on actor, writer, photographer, and director Dennis Hopper as he muses candidly about art, filmmaking, sex, politics, and drugs while on his ranch in New Mexico. Preceded by short The Great Train Robbery, directed by Edwin S. Porter. 1903/ 1971, 102 min.
