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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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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In late November, The Block Museum of Art was proud to unveil the results of the Climate Crisis + Media Arts (CC+MA) Working Group’s transformative media-funding initiative. The two-night event included the first public presentation of six original media arts works made possible with funding from CC+MA. Since 2021, The Block Museum of Art has […]
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On a sunny afternoon in late August, 16 people gathered in the grass of Northwestern’s sculpture garden to make a film. A cohort that included Northwestern faculty, Chicagoland graduate students, and analog film fanatics of all varieties, they came armed with 600 feet of 16mm film, film processing supplies, film splicers and tape, an array […]
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A Historic Festival Revisited offers a Tribute to Women Filmmakers and their Legacies This fall, The Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University and the Gene Siskel Film Center of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago proudly announce a joint celebration of the 50th anniversary of the pioneering Films by Women/Chicago ’74 festival. […]
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In October 2023, Northwestern Department of Asian Languages and Cultures Professor Licheng Gu was at AMC Newcity 14 for a movie. The renowned Chicagoland film festival Asian Pop-up Cinema was celebrating the closing night of its season, with the South Korean musical-comedy-thriller Killing Romance (2023). Both its star, the late Lee Sun-kyun, and its director, […]
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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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