This fall, The Block is thrilled to welcome Ben Creech to the staff as Film / Video and Audio Technician. Ben runs the projection booth in collaboration with the Block Cinema team, casting images onto the screen, managing light and sound for public events, assisting faculty with tech in the auditorium, and overseeing other technical […]
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As a freshman, Northwestern student Rowan McCloskey attended as many Block Cinema screenings as he could. As a sophomore, he became a Block Museum Student Associate (BMSA) after learning about the program through a posting in The Daily Northwestern’s e-newsletter. “Both of those things really cemented my relationship with The Block,” he said. “And because […]
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Damien Chazelle’s meticulously-realized film First Man (2018) follows astronaut Neil Armstrong (Ryan Gosling) and wife Janet (Claire Foy) on the long and difficult path that led from the death of their daughter Karen in 1962 to his 1969 moon landing. While FIRST MAN has no shortage of thrilling astronautical sequences, Chazelle is less interested in […]
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This season Block Cinema in among 40 national organizations selected by the Coolidge Corner Theatre and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation as 2022−23 recipients of the Science on Screen® grant program. Selected recipients receive funds to create Science on Screen events, which pair expert-led discussions of scientific topics with screenings of feature and documentary films […]
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In October 2022, The Block welcomed Tristen Ives as Head Projectionist, an integral role in the Block Cinema program. We sat down with Tristen to learn more about their work and background, and the skill, technique, and care behind a projectionist’s craft. Can you tell us a bit about your background? How did you find […]
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On February 25, 2022 filmmakers Frédéric Moffet, Joelle Mercedes, and Deborah Stratman joined Block Cinema for a conversation on their short films centered on birds and birdwatching practices. With works by Kevin Jerome Everson, Margaret Tait, Frédéric Moffet, Deborah Stratman, and additional artists, the program explored human-avian relationships from a variety of formal, emotional, and conceptual perspectives. I often […]
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In Winter 2021 the Block Museum hosted a discussion between UK filmmaker Onyeka Igwe and Professor Bimbola Akinbola of the Department of Performance Studies at Northwestern University. The conversation was presented as part of the Block Cinema program The Loose Ends of Empire: Unforgetting Colonialism a screening of experimental film and audio-visual works from the […]
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For many, London is an imaginary landscape, a composite of images that circulate in art, literature, and popular culture. On November 12, 2020 Block Cinema explored this landscape with Unreal City: Film Essays on London by Ayo Akingbade and Reece Auguiste a program of experimental essay films from the UK. The screening was followed by a […]
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Since 2011, Chicago’s Prison + Neighborhood Arts Project has brought artists, educators, and activists together with incarcerated individuals at Illinois’ Stateville Correctional Center. Through classes, workshops, and exhibitions, PNAP creates opportunities for learning across prison walls, connecting those inside with the tools and resources needed to creatively communicate their concerns to the larger Chicago community. […]
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On June 18, 2020, Sepehr Vakil, Assistant Professor of Learning Sciences, School of Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University welcomed an online audience to an unique Block Cinema program shaped by a partnership between Northwestern and Evanston Township High School. “To say that these films are deeply and acutely relevant is to state the obvious…For […]
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