A movie can begin with something much simpler than a screen full of digital effects: a shape, a light and a story someone wants to tell.
Haggin Museum’s Silhouette and Shadow Reel Theatre program invites Stockton children to explore that starting point Saturday, November 14, 2026, from 1 to 3 p.m. The session is part of the museum’s 2nd Saturdays for Families series, designed for ages 5–12.
For parents looking for a local outing that gives children something to make and something to investigate, the program joins creative storytelling with a hands-on look at how images work.
Turning simple shapes into stories
The museum identifies Lights! Camera! Alice!, the story of pioneering filmmaker Alice Guy-Blaché, as the inspiration for the activity. Children can create a silhouette movie strip and set up a theatre for their own performances.
That approach puts young visitors in the role of makers. Instead of only watching a finished story, they can consider what an audience needs to recognize a character or understand an action.
Working with silhouettes makes those choices especially visible. An outline has to do some of the storytelling that a detailed image might otherwise supply. Children can experiment with shape and sequence while deciding what they want their small performance to communicate.
Following the light
The session also includes a camera obscura STEM activity exploring how light passing through a small opening can form an image. The museum connects that principle to the early history of photography and filmmaking.
Art and science meet naturally in this setting. The storytelling activity asks what an image means, while the light experiment asks how an image is formed. Together, they give families two different ways to think about something children encounter every day.
The program connects with the museum’s Backstage of Hollywood exhibition. The broader Second Saturdays format includes an art project, STEM activity, docent-led read-aloud and self-guided gallery exploration.
What families need to know
Haggin Museum is at 1201 N. Pershing Avenue in Victory Park, Stockton. The November 14 activities run from 1 to 3 p.m. and are included with regular museum admission; the event is not advertised as a free-admission day.
Reservations are not required. Materials and activities are available first come, first served, so families should account for that when planning their afternoon.
Visit the official program page and the museum’s visitor information for current details, or call 209-940-6300.
A child’s paper movie may be small, but the questions behind it are expansive: how do we make an image, what can it express and how do we help another person see the story we imagine?