A Child’s Christmas in Wales and Humorous Holiday Animation Film Festival
At Exploratorium in December 2009

Don’t miss the sound of Dylan Thomas’ voice in the December 19 Exploratorium screening of A Child’s Christmas in Wales, a film that presents the story, written and narrated by Dylan Thomas, of a boy’s memories of Christmas in Wales.  Take part in the Solstice Seed Swap on December 20.  Sound and image also come together in amazing ways during the Holiday Animation Film Festival, from December 26 & 27; 29 & 30, at noon and 3pm.  All events are included in the price of admission to the Exploratorium.  The program is as follows:

Saturday, December 19 2009
Cinema Arts Program: Holiday Memories
McBean Theater at 2pm.

Classic tales of childhood in northern lands of snow and winter cold.

The Sweater (1980, 10 min.), by Sheldon Cohen, animates a story by Roch Carrier set in rural Québec during the 1940s, when Rocket Richard was the Montreal Canadiens’ greatest star. This funny, poignant tale recalls a boy’s passion for playing hockey and the perils of wearing the wrong jersey.

Dylan Thomas’ A Child’s Christmas in Wales (1963, 26 min.) offers an intimate glimpse of another era, preserved through old photographs and the poet’s resonant memories of childhood and snow. Produced, directed, and photographed by Marvin Lightner with narration from Thomas’ original recording for Caedmon, A Child’s Christmas in Wales is part of the Exploratorium’s 16mm Film Collection.

[Show as slideshow]

Sunday, December 20 2009
Cinema Arts Program: Solstice Seed Swap
McBean Theater at 3pm

Celebrate the winter solstice with our second annual old-time seed swap! For this festive exchange, artists and urban gardeners Bill Basquin, Johunna Grayson, and Greta Snider serve up a 3D slide show, some seed swap history, and light refreshments.

If you bring seeds and rooted cuttings to share, please label them with the following information:

• Where the seeds were collected (neighborhood, county, etc.)
• Year collected
• Common or Latin name of plant
• Flower color, if plant is grown for blooms

Join the fun and take home some seeds! If you don’t have any to swap, don’t worry; we’ll have some seeds to give away.

Saturday and Sunday, December 26 & 27 2009
Tuesday and Wednesday, December 29 & 30 2009
[Museum closed Monday, December 28]

Cinema Arts Program: Humorous Holiday Animation Film Festival
McBean Theater at Noon and 2pm

These animated shorts use pixilation, stop-motion, hand-drawn, and other animation techniques to capture many different playful situations.

Birdbeat: fugue (2002, 5 min.), by Geoff Adams, transforms the cacophony of birds at a backyard feeder into a jazzy, animated composition.

Fetch (2001, 5 min.), by Nina Paley, is a funny exploration of space involving an animated dog chasing a ball to a lively soundtrack by Nik Phelps and The Sprocket Ensemble.

Sour Death Balls (1993, 4 min.), by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Jessica Yu, offers a humorous and quirky look at how people from all ages and backgrounds react to extremely sour candy.

Western Spaghetti (2008, 2 min.), by PES, is a brilliant stop-motion animation of a surprising cooking demonstration.

Dahlia (2009, 3 min.), by Michael Langan, creates a moving portrait of the bustle and permanence of a city by juxtaposing stable forms and patterns with the frenetic behavior of humanity—and setting it all to a driving score of vocal percussion.

The Cinema Arts Program is funded in part by the Louis Goldblatt Memorial Fund and by a grant from Grants for the Arts/San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund.