Family Events 2018

Ongoing

Hands-on activities, participatory readings, performances, movie matinees, and more events designed for kids and their families.

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  • Photo: Grace Kang

  • people making art

    Photo: Tillman Lerner-Thomas

  • people making art

    Photo: Tillman Lerner-Thomas

  • Upcoming
    Films
  • Past
    Films
  • Past
    Events

Past Events

  • Saturday, December 8, 11:30–1 PM or 1–2:30 PM

    Gallery + Studio: Experiments in Three Dimensions

    Explore the 3-D artistic experiments on view in Dimensionism and create sculptural artworks of your own.

    For ages 6 to 12 with accompanying adult(s)

  • Saturday, December 8, 3 PM

    Roundtable Reading: El Deafo by Cece Bell

    Start reading the story of a deaf girl who discovers her special powers, and pick up a copy of the book to keep reading at home.

    Recommended for ages 8 & up (younger kids welcome as listeners)

  • Saturday, November 10, 11:30 AM–1 PM or 1–2:30 PM

    Gallery + Studio: Pour, Sprinkle, Scrape: Color Experiments Inspired by Harvey Quaytman

    Discover Harvey Quaytman’s abstract paintings, then create your own experiments with shape and color.

    For ages 6–12 with accompanying adult(s)

  • Saturday, November 10, 3 PM

    ¡Roundtable Reading Bilingüe! Maximilian & the Mystery of the Guardian Angel, escrito por Xavier Garza

    Join us to start reading in English and Spanish about a boy whose fascination with Lucha Libre leads him to a surprising discovery! Then, take a copy of the book with you to keep reading at home.
    ¡Acompáñanos! Empezaremos a leer la historia de un niño a quien le gusta mucho la lucha libre y ¡hace un descubrimiento sorprendente! Entonces, llevarse el libro contigo para seguir leyendo en casa.

    Recommended for ages 8 & up (younger kids welcome as listeners)
    Recomendado para las edades de 8 años en adelante (niños menores son bienvenidos como oyentes)

  • Sunday, November 4, 11 AM–3 PM

    Fall Free Family Day

    Explore BAMPFA exhibitions, make your own art, enjoy a performance by Unique Derique, and check out a screening of animated films by John Canemaker—bring the family and make a day of it!

  • Saturday, October 13, 11:30 AM–1 PM or 1–2:30 PM

    Gallery + Studio: Supergraphics: Experiments in Design

    Make your own Supergraphics-style design in this workshop inspired by pioneering designer Barbara Stauffacher Solomon’s Art Wall project.

    For ages 6 to 12 with accompanying adult(s)

  • Saturday, October 13, 3 PM

    Roundtable Reading: Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar

    Sample this collection of stories about a school where all sorts of strange and hilarious things happen, and take home a copy to finish reading on your own.

    Recommended for ages 8 & up (younger kids welcome as listeners)

  • Saturday, September 8, 11:30 AM–1 PM or 1–2:30 PM

    Gallery + Studio: From Dream to Play: The Art of Cecilia Vicuña

    Get inspired by Cecilia Vicuña’s work, then work with wood, paint, words, and one another to create art and community.

    For ages 6 to 12 with accompanying adult(s)

     

  • Saturday, September 8, 3 PM

    Roundtable Reading: Rain Reign by Ann M. Martin

    Start reading this story about a girl, her dog, and her obsessions—and pick up a copy to keep reading at home.

    Recommended for ages 8 & up (younger kids welcome as listeners)

  • Saturday, July 14, 11:30–1 PM or 1–2:30 PM

    Gallery + Studio: Inside Out and Outside In

    Explore biomorphic forms and fictional characters in Way Bay 2, then create your own colorful sculpture.

    For ages 6 to 12 with accompanying adult(s)

  • Saturday, July 14, 3 PM

    Roundtable Reading: Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures by Kate DiCamillo

    Start reading about the adventures of Ulysses the squirrel and human girl Flora, and pick up your own copy of this entertaining novel to keep reading at home.

    Recommended for ages 8 & up (younger kids welcome as listeners)

  • Saturday, June 9, 11:30–1 PM or 1–2:30 PM

    Gallery + Studio: Down by the River: Buddhist Scrolls and You

    Create a personal handscroll inspired by Buddhist art in Master Traces, Transcultural Visions.

    For ages 6 to 12 with accompanying adult(s)

  • Saturday, June 9, 3 PM

    Roundtable Reading: The Crossover by Kwame Alexander

    Start reading this novel about brotherhood, change, and the power of family, and pick up a copy to keep reading at home.

    Recommended for ages 8 & up (younger kids welcome as listeners)

  • Saturday, May 12, 11:30-1 PM or 1-2:30 PM

    Gallery + Studio: Ink-Brush Landscapes

    Learn the basics of landscape painting with brush and ink as you make your own scroll inspired by Dreaming the Lost Ming.

    For ages 6 to 12 with accompanying adult(s)

  • Saturday, May 12, 3 PM

    Roundtable Reading: A Mystery Bigger than Big / Un misterio más grande que grandísimo by René Saldaña

    Our first bilingual Roundtable Reading, in Spanish and English! Start reading about a young detective’s latest case, and pick up a copy of the book to continue reading at home.

    Recommended for ages 8 & up (younger kids welcome as listeners)

  • Sunday, April 22, 11-3 PM

    Spring Free Family Day

    Join us for a free day of art, music, and movies! Explore BAMPFA exhibitions, make your own art, groove to a performance by Alphabet Rockers, and check out a screening of The Red Balloon.

  • Saturday, April 14, 11:30 AM–1 PM or 1–2:30 PM

    Gallery + Studio: Through Line: Collaged Portraits/Imagined Spaces

    Inspired by figurative works in Way Bay, play with collage and create a portrait of people dear to you in an imagined space that you revere.

    For ages 6 to 12 with accompanying adult(s)

  • Wishtree book cover
    Saturday, April 14, 3 PM

    Roundtable Reading: Wishtree by Katherine Applegate

    Read the beginning of this book about a large-hearted oak tree who holds people’s wishes, and pick up a copy to continue reading at home.

    Recommended for ages 8 & up (younger kids welcome as listeners)

  • Saturday, March 10, 11:30–1 or 1–2:30

    Gallery + Studio: Self-Portraits/Community Portraits

    Create mixed-media portraits of yourself and people in your community inspired by Karabo Poppy Moletsane’s Art Wall project.

    For ages 6 to 12 with accompanying adult(s)

  • The Wild Robot book cover
    Saturday, March 10, 3 PM

    Roundtable Reading: The Wild Robot by Peter Brown

    Start reading this story of a robot learning to survive on a deserted island, and pick up a copy to continue reading at home.

    Recommended for ages 8 & up (younger kids welcome as listeners)

  • Saturday, February 10, 11:30–1 PM or 1–2:30 PM

    Gallery + Studio: Memorial Drawings

    Use watercolors and colored pencils to make your own memorial drawings honoring someone important to you.

    For ages 6 to 12 with accompanying adult(s)

  • Saturday, February 10, 3 PM

    Roundtable Reading: Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson

    Get into this graphic novel about a girl who finds her inner strength through roller derby, and pick up a free copy to keep reading at home.

    Recommended for ages 8 & up (younger kids welcome as listeners)

  • Saturday, January 13, 11:30–1 PM or 1–2:30 PM

    Gallery + Studio: Landscapes Real and Imagined

    Use drawing, watercolor, and stamping to create your own landscape inspired by the paintings of Chen Hongshou.

    For ages 6 to 12 with accompanying adult(s)

  • Saturday, January 13, 3 PM

    Roundtable Reading: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg

    Read the beginning of this classic story about a girl who runs away to the Metropolitan Museum, and pick up a free copy to keep reading at home.

    Recommended for ages 8 & up (younger kids welcome as listeners)

Past Films

  • The Gold Rush

    • Friday, December 28 2:30 PM
    • Saturday, January 19 3:30 PM
    Charles Chaplin
    United States, 1925, reedited 1942

    Recommended for ages 8 & up

    A hapless prospector tries his luck in the frozen north in a film that glitters with some of Charlie Chaplin’s most memorable nuggets of comedy.

  • Spirited Away

    • Saturday, December 29 3 PM
    Hayao Miyazaki
    Japan, 2001

    English-language version
    Recommended for ages 8 & up

    In this Oscar-winning animated fantasy, a ten-year-old girl and her parents stumble upon an abandoned theme park that turns out to be a true magic kingdom.

  • The Emperor’s Nightingale

    • Saturday, December 15 3:30 PM
    Jiří Trnka
    Czechoslovakia, 1948

    35mm Archival Print
    Recommended for ages 6 & up

    Trnka’s adaptation of a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale about a young Chinese emperor enraptured by the song of a mechanical nightingale is awash in lavish storybook imagery. With short Why UNESCO?

  • Film still: Puppet of a female figure appearing to prepare to throw a javelin.

    A Midsummer Night’s Dream

    • Sunday, December 9 2 PM
    Jiří Trnka
    Czechoslovakia, 1959

    35mm Archival Print
    Recommended for ages 12 & up

    This bewitching stop-motion adaptation of Shakespeare’s romantic tale is a masterpiece of surpassing, balletic beauty that plays out amidst a garlanded, pastel dreamscape. With short The Devil’s Mill.

    Introduction by Jan Pinkava

  • Winged Migration

    • Saturday, October 6 3:30 PM
    Jacques Perrin, Jacques Cluzaud, Michel Debats
    France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, 2001

    BAMPFA Student Committee Pick
    Recommended for ages 7 & up

     

    Accompanying flocks of migratory birds, this documentary “provides such an intense vicarious experience of being a flapping airborne creature . . . that you leave the theater feeling like an honorary member of another species” (New York Times).

  • A Hard Day’s Night

    • Saturday, September 29 3:30 PM
    Richard Lester
    United Kingdom, 1964

    Digital Restoration

     

    Following the adventures of John, Paul, George, and Ringo, A Hard Day’s Night perfectly captures the spirit of the times—and, of course, the music is fantastic.

  • The Breadwinner

    • Saturday, August 25 3:30 PM
    Nora Twomey
    Canada, Ireland, Luxembourg, 2017

    Recommended for ages 11 & up

    This beautifully animated feature-length drama is set in Afghanistan, circa 2001, where an eleven-year-old girl is forced to pretend she is a boy after her father is wrongfully imprisoned by the Taliban.

  • The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill

    • Saturday, July 21 4 PM
    Judy Irving
    United States, 2005

    BAMPFA Collection Print
    Recommended for ages 8 & up

    Irving’s very San Franciscan story of a once-homeless man and the birds he befriended “seduces you with its easy rhythm and unexpected dramatic potency . . . beguiling, moving, and just plain fun” (Baltimore Sun).

    Judy Irving and Mark Bittner in Person

  • The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T.

    The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T.

    • Saturday, April 21 4 PM
    Roy Rowland
    United States, 1953

    Recommended for ages 7 & up

    Scolded for not practicing the piano, a nine-year-old boy daydreams himself into a fantastic world where the piano reigns supreme in this funny, clever musical written by Dr. Seuss.

  • Films by Sally Cruikshank

    • Saturday, March 24 3 PM

    BAMPFA Collection Prints
    Recommended for ages 7 & up

    Cruikshank’s love of surreal 1930s cartoons is evident in her wildly colorful and wonderfully detailed films, some of which were made for Sesame Street.

  • Microcosmos

    • Saturday, February 17 3:30 PM
    Claude Nuridsany, Marie Pérennou
    France, Italy, Switzerland, 1996

    Recommended for ages 7 & up

    Marvel at a world barely visible to our eyes in this astounding documentary on the insect kingdom, filmed with specially designed micro cameras and close-up lenses.

  • The Wizard of Oz

    • Saturday, January 20 3:30 PM
    Victor Fleming
    United States, 1939

    Recommended for ages 5 & up

    What better activity for a Saturday afternoon in winter than a trip down the Yellow Brick Road together with Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Cowardly Lion, and the Tin Woodsman?

  • Howl's Moving Castle

    • Sunday, August 18 4 pm

    Hayao Miyazaki (Japan, 2004) (Hauru no ugoku shiro). English-language version. Ages 9 and up. In an intricately rendered European storybook land, Sophie must help the mysterious magician Howl end both his own curse and an all-too-real war. (119 mins)