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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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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In May 2022, Block Cinema organized “To Render the Infinite,” a screening that brought together scholars and filmmakers to consider the role of the camera and the moving image in capturing and cultivating generational and familial relationships. The unique program connected the work of Kevin Jerome Everson, Paige Taul, & zakkiyyah najeebah dumas o’neal in […]
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In April 2022, Chase Joynt, director of Framing Agnes (2022), visited Block Cinema for two evenings of programs. On the first night, a workshop and screening on Joynt’s filmmaking practice welcomed students and visitors interested in documentary media, trans studies, gender studies, and queer & trans archives. The workshop event was followed the next day […]
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On November 5, 2020 Block Cinema welcomed California-based artist Fox Maxy (Ipai Kumeyaay and Payómkawichum) for a screening and conversation of his work. The works in the program, California Girls (2018), Maat Means Land (2020), and San Diego (2020), offered a prismatic and timely vision of the artist’s home state, viewed through the lens of […]
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Moving across languages, national boarders, and cinematic styles, the wide spectrum of feminist filmmaking by women from the Middle East and North Africa is largely unknown in the United States. The Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University sets out to shine a light on this body of work with Liberating History: Arab Feminisms and […]
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In the heart of the South Side of Chicago, an 85-acre area abutting a railyard means different things to different people. For more than 400 African American families, it is home. For Norfolk Southern railroad company, it is space to expand its train-to-truck intermodal depot. The 2018 documentary The Area tells a story that’s well known […]
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On February 2, 2019 The Block welcomed filmmaker and NYU Professor of Cinema Studies Manthia Diawara for a screening and conversation on his 2017 film An Opera of the World. A world-renowned theorist of cultural hybridity, Manthia Diawara left Mali at the age of 19, emigrating to France and later to the United States. He […]
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