What is a Mediatheque? (and why you should check it out)

The Walker Art Center Bentson Mediatheque, located off the main lobby by the gift shop, is a small movie theater where museum visitors can watch films from the Ruben/Bentson Moving Image Collection. Currently there are 449 films available from a touch pad that instantly projects films to the screen. Many of the films are rare. While some films are available through streaming services, the ability to watch them in a cinema is a special treat.

In 1973, Evelyn Ruben donated $10,000 to start a film collection at the Walker in honor of the 75th birthday of her husband, Edmond Ruben. Ruben, a successful businessman, ran a chain of movie theaters in the Midwest and started the media company Midcontinent Communications. In addition to their love of movies, the Rubens were art collectors and long-time supporters of the Walker. The initial donation enabled the Walker to purchase a variety of films, including several by Charlie Chaplin: A Night in the Show (1915); A Woman (1915); The Rink (1916); The Cure (1917); Easy Street (1917); and other more experimental films like Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) by Maya Deren and Serene Velocity (1970) by Ernie Gehr.

Originally named the Ruben Film Study Collection, it grew to include films that are important to the understanding and study of cinema, from early silent shorts to contemporary independent features, from European avant-garde to the history of experimental filmmakers, including newly commissioned media works by contemporary artists. The collection is not defined by boundaries such as geographic location, theme, or genre. And because of the broad collection scope, it is a very eclectic collection—from Yakov Protazanov’s silent Soviet classic, Aelita: Queen of Mars (1924), to commissioned works, like Vever (2018) by Deborah Stratman.

John Hanhardt, the first film coordinator for the collection, produced an informative brochure introducing it to the public in 1973. In the guide he described the range of films to be acquired and how they would be used. He wrote, “The individual titles will be selected on the basis of their contribution to the formal development of the cinema.” Hanhardt stressed that the presentation of the films be based on their educational value, either in the making of the film or in the social/cultural context of the film.

From the start, the acquisition of films for the Ruben/Bentson Moving Image Collection went hand in hand with film programming. For example, many experimental films were acquired during the 1970s and 1980s from the Visiting Filmmakers series presented by the Walker in collaboration with Film in the Cities. Visiting filmmakers, including Stan Brakhage, Bruce Conner, Yvonne Rainer, Babette Mangolte, and George Kuchar, participated in workshops as well as presented and spoke about their films. On these visits, 16mm prints were acquired directly from the filmmaker for the collection. This tradition continues with contemporary filmmakers including Rhayne Vermette (Métis) whose films were acquired as part of her guest curated program, Our Winnipeg, Ourselves, in 2024.

Once acquired, films are shown to the public in various formats, from the 1990s series Ruben Cinematheque to the long-running series Sounds for Silents, held every August.  Special featured presentations have included the screening of Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin (1925) accompanied by the Minnesota Orchestra at Orchestra Hall in 1985, the first gallery installation of Chantal Akerman’s D’est: From the East (1995), and the pairing of Bruce Conner’s Crossroads (1976) with Leslie Thornton’s commissioned work They Were Just People (2016) in the 2018 film exhibition, Platforms: Collection and Commissions. 

In addition to exhibitions, the films have been available for individual and small group study by university professors, students, and scholars. In the past the films were lent to other educational institutions and museums, but that practice ended in the late 1990s as concern for the condition of the films grew. This led to the reappraisal and digitization of the films with the support of Edmond and Evelyn Ruben’s daughter and son-in-law, Nancy and Larry Bentson and the Bentson Foundation. Renamed the Ruben/Bentson Moving Image Collection in 2015, the Walker has focused on preserving and digitizing older film prints as well as acquiring new films in both digital and print formats. For the past several years, the films have been made available on-site only.

Unsatisfied with just preserved prints and digital files that could not be accessed, the Walker, with the continued support from the Bentson Foundation, repurposed an underutilized space for film presentation. And in May 2015, the Bentson Mediatheque opened, with 76 films available from the collection in the former Information/Lecture Room. The space provides a larger screen experience in an intimate setting with seating for 60. Visitors use an iPad to make selections that are placed in the queue for screening. Each film includes a brief description to help filmgoers finetune their selection. Visitors can also select from preprogrammed curated playlists, including The Children’s Cinema: Films for Kids and Early Cinema. In October, a new playlist will highlight Indigenous films in conjunction with Scholar’s Night: Indigenous Academia.

Currently in its 10th year, the Bentson Mediatheque is used by college professors and students for specially curated presentations, as well as enjoyed by film enthusiasts. When at the Walker, make sure to take a few minutes, or more, to sit down and enjoy a free film.▪︎

Want to learn what is available in the Bentson Mediatheque? Click here to   for a list of films and here for a step-by-step guide on how to select them for screening.