Block Cinema: Block Museum - Northwestern University
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Block Cinema

Block Auditorium

Block Cinema is dedicated to encounter, exchange, and learning through the art of the moving image.

The Block Museum is home to one of the region’s most innovative cinemas. Through its quarterly screening series “Block Cinema,” the museum explores the global past and present, showcasing film and other time-based media across genres, from classic to experimental.

This free, in-house cinema is dedicated to providing Northwestern, the North Shore, and Chicago a quality venue for film and to highlighting the diversity of voices and practices in the media arts field. Post-screening discussions with a filmmaker or scholar, are a staple of the program, providing a unique opportunity for audiences to gain valuable context about the works and offering unique insights into the creative process. In keeping with the Museum’s commitment to presenting art across time, culture, and media, media art is a staple of the Block Museum’s exhibition program.

Always free and open to all

Upcoming Screenings

Mar287 PM

Luther Price: NEW UTOPIA and LIGHT FRACTURE

Join us for an evening of Super 8mm films and 35mm slides from experimental filmmaker Luther Price (1962-2020) who was one of the most original voices in American avant-garde cinema. Presented by Visual Studies Workshop curator Tara Miranda Nelson.
Mar297 PM

Seed Time: SILENT RUNNING (1972) on 35mm

Presented on 35mm, Douglas Trumbull's SILENT RUNNING is a prescient and unique entry in the run of cautionary ecological-themed science fiction films of the 1970s.
Apr35:30 PM

Asian Pop-Up Cinema: MY FAVORITE LOVE STORY (2023)

The Block Museum hosts Asian Pop-Up Cinema for four of their Season 18 screenings, including MY FAVORITE LOVE STORY, a whimsical sci-fi-musical-romance set in a near future Seoul.
Apr45:30 PM

Asian Pop-Up Cinema: DRIFTING FLOWERS, FLOWING DAYS (2022)

The Block Museum hosts Asian Pop-Up Cinema for four of their Season 18 screenings, including DRIFTING FLOWERS, FLOWING DAYS, with filmmaker Yutaka Tsunemachi in person.
Apr57 PM

Guerrilla Television: FOUR MORE YEARS (1972)

Fiercely independent, politically-motivated videomakers, TVTV provided a view of the American political process that had never been seen before with their 1972 documentary recorded at that year’s presidential conventions. Followed by conversation with videomaker Tom Weinberg and Professor Heather Hendershot.
Apr105:30 PM

Asian Pop-Up Cinema: SHANKAR'S FAIRIES (2021) 

The Block Museum hosts Asian Pop-Up Cinema for four of their Season 18 screenings, including SHANKAR'S FAIRIES, followed by a Q&A with the filmmaker.
Apr115:30 PM

Asian Pop-Up Cinema: THE COFFIN PAINTER (2021)

The Block Museum hosts Asian Pop-Up Cinema for four of their Season 18 screenings, including THE COFFIN PAINTER.
Apr177 PM

Irreclaimable: Desert(ed) Lives and Labor Time in Post-Socialist Central Asia

A pairing of nonfiction films from Uzbekistan and China that document environmental catastrophe and reclamation with compelling attentiveness to working life while offering intimate insights into the existential and material conditions of life on the frontline.
Apr186:30 PM

LA CHIMERA (2023)

A standout film of 2023, Alice Rohrwacher's newest work is a dreamy blend of folklore and realism dedicated to her Italian birthplace.
Apr197 PM

THE BLACK STALLION (1979) with Professor Jacob Smith

Carrol Ballard's 1979 classic THE BLACK STALLION is a cinematic achievement that is as visually stunning as it is sonically mesmerizing. Presented with an introduction by Sound Arts and Industries Professor Jacob Smith who will discuss the contributions of sound designer Alan Splet, drawing connections to his work as a long time collaborator of David Lynch.
May107 PM

Film Talks - A Touring Program of Experimental Cinema (Program 2)

A touring program from the UK makes its way to the Block with an exciting selection of experimental films by eleven artists who are featured in the new book "Film Talks: 15 Conversations on Experimental Cinema" with editors Andrew Vallance & Simon Payne in person.
 
"We’re very conscious of the valuable role that university cinemas like ours can play in the ecosystem of non-theatrical film. We look for opportunities to support and showcase the work of distributors who are expanding access to adventurous cinema, archives that are preserving endangered cinematic legacies and scholars and filmmakers who are promoting a more inclusive film culture.
We try to act as a conduit between that international community of passionate cinema workers, and diverse local communities at Northwestern and beyond, who see cinema as a way to encounter the world and exchange ideas."

– Michael Metzger, Pick-Laudati Curator of Media Arts, Block Museum

 


 

Explore conversations and stories from past Block Cinema programs