Create a pencil drawing to take home while taking a closer look at the collection. No experience is necessary. All supplies provided.

For ages 6 - Adult (children ages 12 and younger should be accompanied by an adult). Capacity is limited.

Create a pencil drawing to take home while taking a closer look at the collection. No experience is necessary. All supplies provided.

For ages 6 - Adult (children ages 12 and younger should be accompanied by an adult). Capacity is limited.

In the Art-Making studios. Use an assortment of interesting materials to create your own hand puppet.

Create a pencil drawing to take home while taking a closer look at the collection. No experience is necessary. All supplies provided. For ages 6 - Adult (children ages 12 and younger should be accompanied by an adult). Capacity is limited.

Join travelin' John Paul George (puppeteer Mike Horner) and his singing dog Ringo on an interactive, musical road trip. Audiences are encouraged to sing, clap, and stomp along as the duo performs such favorites as “B-I-N-G-O,” “Wheels on the Bus,” and “Do Your Ears Hang Low?” They’re joined by a … dancing chicken! For all ages. 

Presented with ASL interpretation. 

Black stories take the spotlight to highlight short films that share the joy, determination, resilience, and complexity of being Black and young. Explore a range of genres and styles in a program that spans the globe. These amazing short films were audience favorites and award-winners at the 2022 New York International Children’s Film Festival and are sure to inspire curiosity and conversation for viewers big and small.  

Recommended for families with children ages 9 and up. In English, Portuguese, and Luganda with English subtitles. (76min)  

Black History Month programs are generously supported by the Arn and Nancy Tellem Foundation.

Comic Escape

• United States, Live Action, Alphonso McAuley, 2021, 15 min.  

A young boy unexpectedly finds a comic book that changes his reality. 

Cupids

• United States, Live Action, Zoey Martinson, 2021, 10 min.      

This whimsical comedy love letter to New York's essential workers follows a whole class on the last day of school as they scheme to find the perfect partner for their adored bus driver, Ms. Cheryl, and save her from a lonely summer without them. 

Generation Impact: The Coder

• United States, Documentary, Samantha Knowles, 2021, 7 min.  

Jay Jay Patton was only 13 when she designed and built an app to help kids connect with their incarcerated parents, inspired by her own experience. Now she is creating a coding academy to help other kids do the same. 

My Name is Maluum 

• Brazil, Animation, Luísa Copetti, 2021, 8 min.  

Maalum comes from a home surrounded by love and Afro-centered references. When her classmates tease her about her name, Maluum discovers the lovely legacy of her name and ancestry. 
 

The Night I Left America

• Uganda, United States, Live Action, Laki Karavias, 2021, 14 min. 

While anxiously awaiting the results of his mother’s visa renewal request, a teenage boy living in Texas conjures memories of his life in Uganda. 

Room Rodeo

• United States, Live Action, Daniel Kayamba, 2021, 14 min.  

Grounded and with a last-minute school project due, Jamil takes matters into his own hands in order to prove he is the great-grandson of a legendary Black cowboy. 
 

Wolf and Cub

• United States, Animation, Marvin Bynoe, 2021, 8 min.  

A father and son cross a world of imagination in order to return their mother’s forgotten lunch. 

Presented in partnership with New York International Children’s Film Festival 

Norway/2018—directed by Mats Grorud | 74 min.

Based on interviews with Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, The Tower follows Wardi, an eleven-year-old Palestinian girl, who lives with her whole family in the refugee camp where she was born. Her beloved great-grandfather Sidi was one of the first people to settle in the camp after being chased from his home back in 1948.

The day Sidi gives her the key to his old house back in Galilee, she fears he may have lost hope of someday going home. As she searches for Sidi’s lost hope around the camp, she collects her family’s testimonies, from one generation to the next.

Mixing stop-motion animation and 2D techniques, The Tower portrays the Middle Eastern crisis in a manner that all generations can understand. For ages 14 and up.

USA/1970—directed by Richard Kaplan | 185 min.

Constructed from a wealth of archival footage, the Oscar® nominated King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery To Memphis is a monumental documentary that follows Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. from 1955 to 1968, in his rise from regional activist to world-renowned leader of the Civil Rights movement.

Rare footage of Dr. King's speeches, protests, and arrests are interspersed with scenes of high-profile supporters and opponents of the cause. Restored to full-length by the Library of Congress, the complete version of King is a cinematic national treasure that gives viewers an appreciation of the personal challenges he endured and the cultural legacy he left behind. 

“Perhaps the most important documentary ever made.” -The Philadelphia Bulletin

The Detroit Film Theatre is supported by your tri-county millage investment.
 

49 min.

Let your imagination take the wheel with Kid Flicks One. Whether dreaming up the fantastical, like a cat the size of a house, or the practical, like finding a summer romance for a beloved teacher, these shorts are sure to surprise and delight.

Recommended for families with children ages 5-10. In English & Korean with English subtitles. 

Join Ypsilanti-based artist Jessy Butts for an opportunity to create a shrinky dink key chain or ornament of your own design! Drop-in to the Art Making Studio, draw a portrait and watch your artwork shrink to a third of its size and become 9 times thicker with this fun nostalgic material.

This program is made possible by the PNC Foundation.