The Block Museum

Block Cinema Awarded Science on Screen Grant for 2026–2027

$6,700 grant will support films and conversations exploring Indigenous knowledge, science, and healing during Block Cinema’s 25th anniversary year…...

Block Cinema Awarded Science on Screen Grant for 2026–2027 $6,700 grant will support films and conversations exploring Indigenous knowledge, science, and healing during Block Cinema’s 25th anniversary year Block Cinema at Northwestern University’s Block Museum of Art has been awarded a $6,700 Science on Screen grant for the 2026–27 season. The grant, ...

“Repossessed: Reviving Supernatural Cinema from Beyond the Grave” is a series of three films about possession and resurrection whose eerie afterlives invite us to think about film preservation as a kind of séance.

From the lost shot-on-video horror of Florida Panhandle triple-threat Kip Hanks, to the surreal Detroit-set reverie of Black film pioneer Richard D. Maurice’s ELEVEN P.M. (1928), to Louisville maverick William Girdler’s drive-in doppelgänger to one of the biggest hits of the 1970s, these films were made by defiantly independent filmmakers working far outside the studio system. Each of these remarkable films, surviving in only one or two known copies, might have died with their creators; instead, the strange forces of fate and the passions of obsessed (or possessed) collectors have conspired to keep them alive. For each of these extremely rare screenings, a Block Cinema team member will provide an extended introduction to the mysterious circumstances behind the film’s death and resurrection, inviting audiences to approach the projection as a communion with the dead.

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trailer by Ben Creech

TONIGHT - 7PM - FREE
“Make room Brian DePalma and John Carpenter, you’re the greatest but I’m coming up. Kip Hanks, Pensacola FL.”
Thus reads a classified ad in a 1986 issue of Fangoria, the same year the 22-year-old Hanks debuted THE DUST, a 25-minute, 16mm horror comedy made with a grant from the American Film Institute. With memorable creature effects and locations, THE DUST was a promising entry in the decade’s avalanche of independent regional horror films; with his shot-on-video follow-up, COLD HANDS (1991), writer-director Hanks matured, building on THE DUST’s death-and-resurrection themes to craft something ambitious, personal, and chilling.

Hanks passed away in 2008 with his most significant work unseen and unseeable. Fast forward to 2025, when Block Cinema ordered a pair of purportedly blank U-matic tapes on eBay for testing purposes. What arrived was nothing less than the master copy of COLD HANDS – a discovery that coincided uncannily with our discovery of a print of THE DUST in the collection of nearby venue Chicago Filmmakers. Designated by fate, circumstance, or some unknown force to resurrect Hanks’ work, Block Cinema is proud to present the first ever public screening of a new digital preservation of COLD HANDS, reunited with its sibling THE DUST in 16mm.

With an introduction by Block Cinema curator Michael Metzger Mike Metzger and a post-film discussion with independent filmmaker and Northwestern professor Spencer Parsons .

The Block and Litowitz Center Explore “Vigil” Through Art [Video]

The Block Museum’s collection is a resource for looking closely, asking questions, and thinking with others. In a recorded talk presented with Northwestern’s Litowitz Center for Enlightened Disagreement, three artworks open new ways to consider…...

The Block and Litowitz Center Explore "Vigil" Through Art [Video] The Block Museum’s collection is a resource for looking closely, asking questions, and thinking with others. In a recorded talk presented with Northwestern’s Litowitz Center for Enlightened Disagreement, three artworks open new ways to consider Vigil, George Saunders’s novel and the 2026–27 ...

Block Cinema Marks 25 Years by Looking Toward the Future of the Moving Image

Projecting the Future: Block Cinema at 25 celebrates a milestone with a year of special programs and new initiatives…...

Block Cinema Marks 25 Years by Looking Toward the Future of the Moving Image Projecting the Future: Block Cinema at 25 celebrates a milestone with a year of special programs and new initiatives The Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of its Block Cinema program with Projecting the Future: Block Cinema at 25, a year-long series ex...

Student Research Expands The Block’s Campus Art Walk Audio Guide

Two new audio stops on The Block Museum of Art’s Campus Art Walk invite visitors to look closely at outdoor sculptures by Jesús Moroles and Thomas Sternal....

Student Research Expands The Block’s Campus Art Walk Audio Guide Two new audio stops on The Block Museum of Art’s Campus Art Walk invite visitors to look closely at outdoor sculptures by Jesús Moroles and Thomas Sternal. The new entries were researched, written, and recorded by 2025–26 Block Museum curatorial interns Muyang Chen (Anthropology and Art History...

Collection Spotlight: Sammy Baloji, Raccord #1: Cité de Kawama, 2012

Artist: Sammy Baloji Title: Raccord #1: Cité de Kawama Date: 2012, printed 2015 Medium: Inkjet print…...

Collection Spotlight: Sammy Baloji, Raccord #1: Cité de Kawama, 2012 Artist: Sammy Baloji Title: Raccord #1: Cité de Kawama Date: 2012, printed 2015 Medium: Inkjet print Dimensions: 33 x 95 ½ x 2 in. Credit: Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Block Collection Council Fund purchase, 2025.26. Image copyright of the artist. Sammy Baloji’s d...

Collection Spotlight: Vivian Maier, At the Balaban & Katz United Theater, Chicago, IL, 1961

Artist: Vivian Maier (American, 1926–2009) Title: At the Balaban & Katz United Theater, Chicago, IL Date:...

Collection Spotlight: Vivian Maier, At the Balaban & Katz United Theater, Chicago, IL, 1961 Artist: Vivian Maier (American, 1926–2009) Title: At the Balaban & Katz United Theater, Chicago, IL Date: 1961, printed 2024 Dimensions: 12 x 12 in. (30 x 30 cm.) Credit: Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Block Board of Advisors Endowment fund purchase, 2024.18.1 © 2026...

The Block Museum of Art Explores How Artists Shaped the Image of the Modern City

Picturing the Modern Metropolis brings together more than 100 prints, photographs, and drawings from The Block’s collection…...

The Block Museum of Art Explores How Artists Shaped the Image of the Modern City Picturing the Modern Metropolis brings together more than 100 prints, photographs, and drawings from The Block’s collection The Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University presents Picturing the Modern Metropolis: Prints and Photographs from The Block’s Collection, on view September 9 through...

Block Museum Receives $25,000 Frankenthaler Climate Initiative Grant

Funding will advance the museum's planning for more sustainable collection care and building operations The Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University has received a $25,000 grant from the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation through the…...

Block Museum Receives $25,000 Frankenthaler Climate Initiative Grant Funding will advance the museum’s planning for more sustainable collection care and building operations The Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University has received a $25,000 grant from the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation through the Frankenthaler Climate Initiative, established i...