© Kobe Vlemings & Mingus Vets

Please join us for an evening with short films made by kids from the past and the present in celebration of Children Reinventing Cinema: Snapshots from the Early 21st Century, new book by Adjunct Professor Wanda Strauven and Professor Alexandra Schneider (Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz). Introduced by Professor Rob King.

After the screening, the authors and Associate Professor of Childhood Studies Meredith A. Bak (Rutgers University) will take part in a discussion moderated by Film and Media Studies student Ava Witonsky.

About the book:
Children today discover a new digital drawing tool, the camera-crayon, at a very young age. They appropriate devices such as compact cameras and mobile phones and make their own media artifacts in their play. Expanding on a media-archaeological approach to film history, this book maps children’s playful and imaginative knowledge of contemporary media culture and explores their filmmaking practices that push the boundaries of forms and formats. Published by meson press.

Screening Program:
Make a Movie Without a Camera
by Wayne Thiebaud
1954, US, 5 min.

Children Make Movies
by DeeDee Halleck
1961, US, 9 min.

Ooit eens op een keer… (Once upon a time…)
by Kobe Vlemings & Mingus Vets
2016, Belgium, 1 min.

Notre métier, c’est jouer (Our job is to play)
by Pierre Sanou
2018, Burkina Faso, 13 min.

Let’s Make a Film
by Yvonne Andersen
1970, US, 13.5 min.

IPAD
by Nurit Hediger
2013, Netherlands, 10 sec.

green before “green”
by Atticus Echeverria and Paul Echeverria
2022, US, 9.5 min.

singies
a compilation by Wanda Strauven
2025, US, 3 min.

Run Time: approximately 55 minutes