‘Projecting the Future: Block Cinema at 25’ looks toward the future of the moving image

EVANSTON, Ill. — The Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University marks the 25th anniversary of its Block Cinema program with “Projecting the Future: Block Cinema at 25,” a year-long celebration exploring the evolving possibilities of the moving image.

Founded in 2001 as a programming showcase for Northwestern’s student-run Film and Projection Society, Block Cinema has grown into one of the Midwest’s most distinctive university cinema programs. Today, its work encompasses public screenings, teaching and research, film preservation, artist collaborations and student learning. More than 40 free public events each academic year bring audiences together to experience cinema from across the globe, with a particular emphasis on underrecognized and out-of-circulation work, and original 16mm and 35mm formats.

The anniversary uses Block Cinema’s first 25 years as a starting point for exploring what cinema can make possible now. Programs planned for the 2026–27 academic year focus on three themes: hidden histories highlighting research, archival discovery and preservation; expanded cinema, exploring performance and new forms of collective viewing; and the future of film, creating new opportunities for Northwestern students to shape what comes next.

“Seeing films is not an exercise in nostalgia — it’s a way to come together in the present and think about ways of living together in the future,” said Michael Metzger, Pick-Laudati Academic Curator of Cinema and Media Arts at The Block. “We’re infatuated with the possibilities of cinema. For us, that means not only showing films, but supporting the people who make them, uncovering histories that have been overlooked, preserving works in danger of disappearing and finding new places for discovery and encounter.”

A major anniversary event in Spring 2027 will feature a keynote address by Jacqueline Stewart, one of the nation’s leading scholars of cinema and African American film history. Stewart is a professor at the University of Chicago, host of Turner Classic Movies’ “Silent Sunday Nights,” and previously served as director and president of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. Stewart’s keynote will reflect on the formative experience of encountering film in a university cinematheque, and the role campus film culture can play in shaping lifelong engagement with cinema.

“Block Cinema embodies The Block’s commitment to art as a form of research and knowledge creation,” said Lisa Graziose Corrin, Ellen Philips Katz Executive Director of The Block Museum of Art. “Cinema can bring together people working across very different fields and create a shared space for inquiry. At Northwestern, that makes Block Cinema not only a place to experience extraordinary films, but a place where students, faculty, artists and the public can make discoveries together.”

Celebration begins at the beginning

The anniversary year opens Sept. 24 with a 35mm presentation of Olivier Assayas’ “Irma Vep” (1996), the same film that launched Block Cinema programming in September 2001.

Starring Maggie Cheung as a fictionalized version of herself, Assayas’ film follows a Hong Kong actor arriving in Paris to appear in a remake of Louis Feuillade’s silent serial “Les Vampires.” Moving between silent cinema, the French New Wave, and the international filmmaking landscape of the 1990s, “Irma Vep” embodies the global scope and spirit of reinvention that have remained central to Block Cinema.

The connection continues Oct. 14 with a special 16mm presentation of “Hypnotic Eyes,” the sixth episode of Feuillade’s “Les Vampires” (1915–1916). Chicago music trio Whitney Johnson, Lia Kohl and Macie Stewart will perform a live improvisational score. Presented in partnership with International Anthem Recording Company, the event brings historic film into conversation with contemporary Chicago music and performance.

Discover hidden histories

Research and preservation have become increasingly central to Block Cinema’s work. Through partnerships with filmmakers, scholars, libraries, archives and collections, the initiative has helped return rarely seen and, in some cases, previously lost films to public view.

Recent projects have included the recovery and first public screening in more than 50 years of Karen Sperling’s “The Waiting Room” (1973), research into overlooked trans film histories, and the rediscovery of films by Kentucky experimental animator Ed Counts. In 2025, Block Cinema received its first National Film Preservation Foundation (NFPF) grant to preserve three Counts films. A second NFPF grant, awarded in 2026, supports the preservation of two experimental animated films by artist Rowena Pattee Kryder.

A new “Special Collections” quarterly film series will build on this work through archival screenings, preservation projects and conversations with historians and archivists. The “Special Collections” series debuts Nov. 19 with “You (Probably) Haven’t Seen This Before,” a conversation with Carmel Curtis, director of Indiana University Libraries Moving Image Archive (IULMIA) and media preservation specialist Charles Allen. The event is an extension of the IULMIA series dedicated to “using archival film to challenge dominant cinematic canons and foreground historically marginalized voices.”

Experience expanded cinema

Block Cinema has long treated film as more than an image on a screen, exploring how projection, performance, sound and setting can transform the experience of cinema. “Projecting the Future” builds on that approach, activating the Block auditorium and spaces beyond the museum through live performance, analog projection, artist collaborations and hands-on workshops.

A new series pairs a century-old film with contemporary Chicago musicians. First up, on Oct. 9 is a 35mm presentation of surreal silent landmark “Eleven P.M.” (1928), accompanied by Chicago artist and musician Damon Locks. Series events, including the Oct. 14 presentation of “Les Vampires,” will experiment with the relationship between image, audience and place, bringing moving images into new spaces and inviting audiences to experience cinema as a live, communal art form.

Imagine the future of film

The Block will launch a new undergraduate film-programming initiative designed to extend beyond the anniversary year. Commemorating Block Cinema’s roots in the student-led Film and Projection Society, the initiative will create paid opportunities for Northwestern students to work alongside Block Cinema staff researching films, developing programs and presenting screenings for public audiences. 

While the student run Film and Projection Society no longer exists, student collaboration with Block Cinema has continued in various forms. The new initiative builds on and formalizes Northwestern’s long-standing tradition of incorporating film into teaching while providing new opportunities for students to engage with the moving image.

The film that changed your life

What film changed your life? A new interview series explores cinema’s capacity for personal transformation. Short video testimonials and screenings feature reflections by filmmakers, artists, scholars, alumni, students and audience members each discussing a film that stayed with them and shaped their personal or professional path. 

Responses may range from a celebrated classic or a childhood favorite, to an obscure documentary or a film encountered unexpectedly at exactly the right moment. Members of the public will also be invited to contribute their own stories.

“Film offers us an encounter with the past that we can carry forward with us throughout our lives,” Metzger said. “Block Cinema has always been about creating the conditions for those encounters. Twenty-five years in, we’re interested in where they might lead next.”

Additional “Projecting the Future” screenings, performances, guests and student programs will be announced throughout the 2026–27 academic year. Block Cinema events are free and open to all.

“Projecting the Future” partnerships and support

Block Cinema is proud to sponsor two leading independent film festivals as part of the anniversary year. Chicago Underground Film Festival is a longstanding Chicago platform for independent and experimental film, and the Camden International Film Festival, presented by Points North Institute in Maine, is a major gathering for documentary filmmakers and artists. Both partnerships extend Block Cinema’s engagement with moving-image communities in Chicago and nationally.

Block Cinema’s 25th anniversary programming is made possible through the generous support of an anonymous friend of The Block, as well as Drs. James Pick and Roz Laudati and the Romenesa Foundation.