Saturday Happenings

Photo of the 2008 Honk! Festival tagged "Bostonist" by AP Donovan

The Honk! Festival might be the largest annual gathering of leftist adult marching bands in the world. Based in Davis Square, it's definitely our favorite. The schedule lists 25 bands, and you're likely to hear everything from Afro-Brazilian marching music to klezmer, free jazz to New Orleans second line brass marches. The only thing uniting the bands? A punk rock ethos and a dedication to being "radical and subversive without being militant or sanctimonious." Davis Square, Somerville, noon to 9 p.m. Free. More information.

Open Studios

It's the forgotten neighborhood when it comes to open studios. East Boston is home to a surprising number of artists working in diverse media. Bostonist went on a whim last year and, after getting sidetracked by a massive feast day march, spent an entire afternoon discovering new artists and getting an unwitting tour of the neighborhood. Start at 80 Border Street and work from there. Various locations, East Boston, noon to 6 p.m. (through Sunday). Free. More information.

Roller Derby

The Boston Derby Dames skate a double header tonight, as they play for the season championship. Things get started with an expo bout between New England Roller Derby (N.E.R.D.), featuring members of the Wicked Pissahs, and the Garden State Rollergirls, featuring a lot of big hair. The championship bout follows, and it will pit the undefeated Cosmonaughties against the Nutcrackers, who upset the Pissahs in the playoffs for an unlikely championship bid. Shriner's Auditorium, 99 Fordham Rd., Wilmington, 5 p.m., $10.

Movies

A pair of films at the MFA this afternoon explore East Germany as the Wall comes down. The Architects (1990) follows the artistic conscience of an architect chafing against the Communist Party in the waning days of the GDR. Silent Country (1992), a tragicomedy, follows the stymied efforts of a theater director who wants to stage Waiting for Godot in an East German town, just as Berlin has its revolution. Remis Auditorium, Museum of Fine Arts, 3:45 p.m. and 6 p.m., $10/$8, separate admissions.

More Movies

New Muslim Cool (2009) is a documentary about Hamza Pérez, a Muslim rapper and prison chaplain living in Puerto Rico. Pérez will be on hand after the film, and the Sackler Museum will extend its hours so that filmgoers can see the consonances between the movie and the exhibit Sacred Spaces: The World of Dervishes, Fakirs and Sufis. Sackler Museum, Harvard University, 485 Broadway, Cambridge, 5 p.m. Free. More information.