The Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University presents Exhausted America, a Block Cinema film series featuring rare 16mm and 35mm screenings that explore endurance, competition, and disillusionment in American life. The series runs February 19 through March 12, 2026, and includes Sydney Pollack’s They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1969), Robert Altman’s Nashville (1975), and S.R. Bindler’s documentary Hands on a Hardbody (1997).

About Exhausted America

“Exhausted America” presents a trio of films that collectively speak to a country at the end of its physical, psychological, and economic tether. Inspired by Northwestern professor Heather Hendershot’s description of Robert Altman’s Nashville (1975) as a film “about America, a country that has reached the point of political exhaustion in the wake of Vietnam, Nixon, assassinations – a hangover from the 1960s that has segued into the despair and cynicism of the 1970s,” the series offers three stark yet utterly engrossing visions of American life, from the daily grind of hardscrabble existence to the knock-down, drag-out ethos of its economic and political contests.

Each of the films in “Exhausted America” is organized around a competition, from the grueling Depression-era dance marathon of Sydney Pollack’s They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1969) to the political grandstanding of Nashville, to the promotional-stunt-turned-existential drama of S.R. Bindler’s beloved 1997 documentary Hands on a Hardbody. Underlying each film’s examination of capitalism’s winner-take-all logic is the suspicion, echoing Hendershot’s characterization of Nashville as a “cinema of losers,” that individualism often produces only pyrrhic victories.

“The films in ‘Exhausted America’ show us characters pushing the limits of endurance, both individually on a physical level and on the level of collective psychology.”
– Michael Metzger, Pick-Laudati Academic Curator for Cinema and Media Arts

“The films in ‘Exhausted America’ show us characters pushing the limits of endurance, both individually on a physical level and on the level of collective psychology,” said Michael Metzger, Pick-Laudati Academic Curator for Cinema and Media Arts. “We believe that presenting the films on 16mm and 35mm will convey that sense of embodiment as impactfully as possible, but we also know that analog formats turn out enthusiastic, engaged audiences. The stronger the attendance for these screenings, the more powerfully we can conjure a sense of shared experience, which is especially critical to the social themes of these three films.”

Associate Film Programmer Malia Haines-Stewart emphasized the experiential dimension of analog exhibition: “We put a lot of effort into finding prints of NASHVILLE and THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON’T THEY?, which are all very hard to see on celluloid. As a physical medium, film is like the human body: it can take a lot of stress and strain, but it’s not invincible, and it shows its wear. There’s something about seeing a film print that brings you closer to the corporeality and vulnerability of the figures on screen, and to the people around you in the audience.”

Series Screenings

THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON’T THEY? (1969)

Thursday, February 19, 7 PM | 16mm

As bleak and disillusioned a film as Hollywood produced in the late 1960s, Sydney Pollack’s acclaimed drama draws on the real-life tradition of Depression-era dance marathons to deliver a gut-wrenching critique of American capitalism’s appetite for competition and spectacle. Jane Fonda stars as Gloria Beatty, an unemployed background actress who enters a dance-until-you-drop contest in hopes of winning $1,500. Alongside a tragi-comic emcee and a group of contestants pushed past their physical and emotional limits, the film unfolds as a powerful allegory of exploitation that continues to resonate today.

Despite strong critical reception and multiple Academy Award nominations at its release, the film has been difficult to see for decades due to distribution challenges. This rare low-fade positive 16mm print is presented courtesy of Visual Studies Workshop.

NASHVILLE (1975)

Friday, February 27, 6:45 PM | 35mm

Robert Altman’s landmark musical satire about the collapse of American idealism captures a nation shaped by political spectacle, media culture, and shifting social values. Widely considered one of the defining films of the 1970s, Nashville blends ambitious ensemble storytelling with sharply observed commentary on performance, celebrity, and democracy.

Northwestern professor Heather Hendershot will introduce the screening in connection with her forthcoming BFI Film Classics monograph on the film. Her scholarship examines the film’s commentary on gendered exploitation while identifying the guarded hopefulness that tempers its portrayal of American political culture.

HANDS ON A HARDBODY: THE DOCUMENTARY (1997)

Thursday, March 12, 7 PM

Two dozen contestants gather around a Nissan pickup truck at a Texas dealership, each determined to keep one hand on the vehicle longer than anyone else to win it outright. What begins as a simple promotional stunt unfolds in S.R. Bindler’s documentary into a hilarious, moving, and unexpectedly profound portrait of American aspiration, consumer culture, and endurance. 

After being distributed theatrically nationwide, optioned by Robert Altman for a possible feature, adapted as a Broadway musical, and championed by a generation of passionate video-store clerks–it’s clear that HANDS ON A HARDBODY also captured something universal, standing 20 years later alongside AMERICAN MOVIE and PARADISE LOST (1996) as one of the most significant and compelling documentaries of the decade. 

About Block Cinema

Block Cinema is dedicated to encounter, exchange, and learning through the art of the moving image. Originating as a repertory screening series, it has evolved into a dynamic platform for film exhibition, scholarship, pedagogy, and public dialogue at Northwestern University.

The program foregrounds filmmakers and perspectives often underrepresented in mainstream cinema, pairing screenings with conversations that encourage critical inquiry and community engagement. Through collaborations with faculty, students, artists, and scholars, Block Cinema connects academic research with public audiences while supporting interdisciplinary teaching, media arts practice, and cultural exchange across campus and beyond.