This past year, Block Cinema set out to explore a big question:
How can moving images be created in ways that honor and protect the environment?

With support from the Earth Rising Foundation’s Sustainable Visions grant and in partnership with Northwestern’s Climate Crisis + Media Arts Working Group, Block Cinema hosted a three-part series of eco-processing workshops between August 2024 and June 2025. These hands-on programs introduced artists, students, and community members to analog film and photography techniques that replace toxic darkroom chemicals with plant-based and low-impact alternatives.

The initiative invited participants to think ecologically through the act of making film—responding to the plants, water, and histories of each workshop location—while learning practical skills they could carry into their own creative practices. Each workshop was free, with all materials provided, and open to the public.

Three Experiments in Sustainable Filmmaking

• Phytograms on 16mm Film (Northwestern University, August 2024)
  Participants, guided by filmmaker and Northwestern faculty member Christina C Nguyen and co-facilitator Tristen Ives, created cameraless films by placing gathered leaves, flowers, and seeds directly onto 16mm film stock. Washing soda and vitamin C replaced conventional chemicals, while sunlight and plant phenols developed vivid, cyanotype-like impressions. With guidance from environmental policy scholar Eli Suzukovich III (Little Shell Band of Chippewa-Cree/Krajina Serb), participants foraged native and invasive plants from campus, resulting in a collaborative reel that captured the textures and colors of late summer in Chicago.
  
• Eco-Friendly Film Processing with Greta Snider (Watershed Art & Ecology, Pilsen, May 2025)
  San Francisco–based experimental filmmaker Greta Snider introduced participants to plant- and saltwater-based development techniques using vintage 35mm cameras. The workshop emphasized water as a creative collaborator, with rolls shot in the neighborhood and processed together on site. The group included experienced photographers, community organizers, and students, reflecting the diverse network of makers engaged across Chicago. The workshop was hosted by Watershed Art & Ecology, an independent, artist-run exhibition and community space dedicated to fostering ecological knowledge in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood.

• Cameraless Filmmaking with COUSIN Collective (Gichigamiin Indigenous Nations Museum, Evanston, May 2025)
  Filmmakers Adam Piron (Kiowa/Mohawk) and Lindsay McIntyre (Inuk) invited participants to apply medicinal plants, seeds, and dried flowers directly onto strips of clear 16mm leader, bypassing chemicals altogether. A tour of the medicine garden at Evanston’s Gichigamiin Indigenous Nations Museum with artist Camille Billie (Oneida) connected materials used in the films to their cultural significance and ecological roles. Participants were able to view their works-in-progress on modified 16mm projectors and later received digital scans of their projects.
  

Building Knowledge and Community

For participants, these workshops were about more than technical lessons—they sparked collaboration and connection. Attendees ranged from first-time filmmakers and students to seasoned photographers, educators, and community organizers. Many have since attended Block screenings or continued creative projects that began in the workshops.

Michael Metzger, Pick-Laudati Academic Curator for Cinema and Media Arts, emphasized that the program showed how environmental concerns can be integrated into Block Cinema’s public initiatives. “The workshops demonstrated that making film can be a way of engaging directly with the environment,” he explained, “providing both practical knowledge in sustainable methods and opportunities for participants to connect with the ecological and cultural contexts of their communities.” He also noted that the series strengthened Block Cinema’s ability to support Chicago’s community of filmmakers, offering access to resources and space for experimentation that are often difficult to find outside of an academic or institutional setting.

What’s Next

Through these three workshops, Block Cinema has not only introduced community members and creatives to more sustainable practices but built an intentional creative community that inspires people to use film to think ecologically and to make images that reflect the environments they call home.

The Eco-Processing team, led by Metzger, Nguyen, and Block Cinema associate film programmer Malia Haines-Stewart, is now compiling its growing expertise into a toolkit of sustainable film practices, to be shared with artists and educators everywhere. Plans are also underway for future workshops, including 16mm camera work, creating eco-friendly color dyes, and new plant-based developers.

About Earth Rising Foundation

This work was made possible with the generous support of the Earth Rising Foundation, a small climate justice foundation that amplifies existing and emerging voices demanding a future based on cooperation and care for each other and the planet. Their vision is rooted in the understanding that climate change is not simply a technical problem but a systemic challenge that touches every aspect of social life.

Earth Rising initiatives include supporting the youth climate movement, elevating Indigenous voices and stewardship practices, developing compelling visions of a just and sustainable future, highlighting how climate change exacerbates existing injustices, and promoting regenerative agriculture to draw down carbon. The foundation provides material support for climate activism and creative initiatives like Block Cinema’s eco-processing workshops—projects that unite environmental responsibility, artistic innovation, and community connection.