Block Cinema is dedicated to encounter, exchange, and learning through the art of the moving image.
Winter 2026 Screenings Coming Soon
Feb57 PM
“Real shape of the earth”: Short Films with Ben Balcom
The films of Milwaukee-based experimental filmmaker Ben Balcom trace the histories of overlooked progressive social projects in the Midwest with adept analogue techniques. Artist in person with digital and 16mm films, including two companion pieces by Rhea Storr and Janis Crystal Lipzin.
Feb67 PM
Avant to Live! The Films of Craig Baldwin with guest Brett Kashmere
An essential figure of the American underground film scene, Craig Baldwin creates dense, corrosive found-footage films that bend the detritus of American mass culture against the stagnant myths of Western progress. This program celebrates the recent publication "Avant to Live!" with co-editor Brett Kashmere.
"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 Block Cinema's Press Coverage
