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 […]
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In July 2025, Northwestern’s Rhetoric, Media, and Publics PhD program hosted its seventh Media Aesthetics Summer Institute, a weeklong gathering of graduate students and visiting scholars organized around the theme “Excluded Media.” Convened by Michael Metzger, Pick-Laudati Academic Curator of Cinema and Media Arts at The Block Museum, and Dilip Gaonkar, Professor of Rhetoric, Media, […]
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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 […]
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In August 2025, Block Cinema’s groundbreaking Trans Portraiture series traveled beyond Evanston to Philadelphia, where Michael Metzger, Pick-Laudati Academic Curator for Cinema and Media Arts, presented highlights of the program at the 31st annual Visible Evidence Conference. Visible Evidence, the premier international gathering of scholars and practitioners of documentary and nonfiction media, convened this year […]
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Project highlights Block Cinema’s growing role as a center for media research and discovery at Northwestern University. The Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University has received a Basic Preservation Grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation (NFPF) to support the restoration and preservation of four rare films by independent Kentucky animator Ed Counts (1946–2009). […]
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For students in Northwestern’s MFA in Documentary Media program, a weeklong visit from filmmaker James Benning offered insight and fresh perspectives on cinema. Benning, a major presence in American experimental cinema known for his rigorous emphasis on duration and looking, screened two films publicly, gave a three-hour masterclass open to Northwestern students, and offered feedback […]
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On a recent Monday afternoon, The Block Cinema team and a handful of scholars from across Northwestern gathered in the empty auditorium to screen the film Paydirt (1981), a little-seen film by director Penny Allen about Oregon winemakers who grow marijuana to ease financial strain. The event was part of a series of weekly research […]
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On April 3, 2025 Block Cinema will host a historic screening of The Waiting Room (1974), marking its first public showing in over five decades. This rare cinematic event will take place at the Wirtz Center Chicago in Abbott Hall on Northwestern University’s Downtown Chicago campus, coinciding with the 2025 Society for Cinema and Media […]
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March 2025 program showcases rediscovered archival films and contemporary works by trans filmmakers. Block Cinema at Northwestern University proudly presents Trans Portraiture, a groundbreaking film series running throughout March 2025 that explores historical and contemporary representations of transgender lives on screen. Timed to culminate with International Trans Day of Visibility (March 31), the series spotlights […]
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The Block Museum of Art’s Block Cinema continues its tradition of celebrating work by under-seen media artists with a rare screening of Amy Halpern’s FALLING LESSONS (1992), a classic of American independent and experimental cinema. This special event is part of “Palm Down: The Films of Amy Halpern,” a citywide collaboration celebrating Halpern’s legacy and […]
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