Tsai Ming-Liang

a woman with a red broom and dustpan sweeps an empty theater full of red seats.

Monday, October 03, 6:00 p.m. Born in Malaysia in 1957, Tsai Ming-Liang is one of the most prominent film directors of the new cinema movement in Taiwan. He is known for long shots, elliptical narratives, painterly approaches to light and color, and poignant portrayals of urban and sexual alienation. In 1994, Tsai’s film VIVE L’AMOUR […]

Read More… from Tsai Ming-Liang

Jessica Bardsley: Into the Canyon

A still taken from the classic film Thelma and Louise shown in black and white negative.

Thursday, September 22, 6:00 p.m. In Jessica Bardsley’s evocative, award-winning films, landscapes serve as potent metaphors for emotional states. The humid darkness of underground caves, geological striations of the desert, and unfamiliar topographies of celestial bodies become sites to explore pain, fear, resilience, and a desire for transcendence. Bardsley draws her images from iconic films […]

Read More… from Jessica Bardsley: Into the Canyon

Announcing Fall 2022

A still taken from the classic film Thelma and Louise shown in black and white negative.

Join us for the fall 2022 season of Conversations at the Edge! The series returns to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s (SAIC) Gene Siskel Film Center (164 North State Street) for in-person screenings with Jessica Bardsley (9/22), Tsai Ming-Liang (10/3), Marta Pajek (10/20), an animation program including Yoriko Mizushiri, Martina Scarpelli, Shoko […]

Read More… from Announcing Fall 2022

Thank you! 2021-22 Season

A large container ship in a blue ocean harbor. In the foreground of the image is a waving hand.

Thank you to everyone who made this year’s program possible! We are so appreciative of the outstanding artists who shared their works, time, and ideas with us: Renée Green, Lynda Benglis, Anocha Suwichakornpong, Pom Bunsermvicha, Tulapop Saenjaroen, Nazli Dinçel, Meriem Bennani, Andy Slater, Dani ReStack, Sheilah ReStack, and Nick Briz, as well as the artists […]

Read More… from Thank you! 2021-22 Season

Nick Briz

Words and numbers in white type arranged to form the impression of a fingerprint against a background of purples and blues.


Thursday, April 14, 6:00 p.m. For the last 10 years, new media artist, educator, and organizer Nick Briz has produced an  urgent and electrifying body of work that uses the tools of our digital age to illuminate its promises and perils. Taking shape through software, websites, video essays, and lecture series, Briz has examined the […]

Read More… from Nick Briz

Dani and Sheilah ReStack

The rear end of a brown and white horse and a white rider swimming in green water.


Thursday, March 31, 6:00 p.m. The videos of Dani and Sheilah ReStack are radical explorations of queer desire, parenthood, and creative community. Formally and emotionally adjacent to their domestic lives, the Restacks’ works are exhilarating montages of home, artmaking, sex, parenting, wounds, viscera, animals, gardens, and wild open spaces. The two will present the Chicago […]

Read More… from Dani and Sheilah ReStack

Andy Slater

A white man with red hair and red wraparound glasses wearing a blue cardigan holding up a microphone in a white room.


Thursday, March 10, 6:00 p.m. Andy Slater. Photo: Charlie SimokaitisAndy Slater’s rich and evocative works combine distorted field recordings, alternative texts, and the singular rhythms and sonic colors of vintage accessible technologies. In a program designed especially for the Gene Siskel Film Center’s acoustic capabilities, Slater will present a selection of recent sound-based works inspired […]

Read More… from Andy Slater

Meriem Bennani

A large blue computer rendered globe with the words USA, CAPS, MOROCCO, and SPAIN hovering over the outlines of states.


Thursday, March 03, 6:00 p.m. In her genre-bending and often absurdly funny videos, Rabat-born, New York–based artist Meriem Bennani fuses the languages of reality television, social media, and 3D animation to explore such weighty topics as biopolitics, virtuality, and globalism. In conjunction with the exhibition of her latest film Life on the CAPS at the Renaissance Society […]

Read More… from Meriem Bennani

Nazlı Dinçel

A hand sensually stroking a large green leaf overlaid with the word “metaphor.”

Thursday, February 17, 6:00 p.m. Nazlı Dinçel’s handmade films reflect on experiences of physical and cultural disruption, from intimate states of arousal to Dinçel’s own immigration from Turkey to the United States. By scratching, sewing, letter-punching, and hand-developing, they draw comparisons between the sensuous physicality of film and the body. Dinçel will present a selection […]

Read More… from Nazlı Dinçel

Announcing Spring 2022

A hand sensually stroking a large green leaf overlaid with the word “metaphor.”

Join us for the spring 2022 season of Conversations at the Edge! The series returns to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s (SAIC) Gene Siskel Film Center (164 North State Street) for in-person screenings, performances, and presentations with Nazli Dincel (Feb 17),  Meriem Bennani (Mar 10),  Andy Slater (Mar 31), Dani and Sheilah […]

Read More… from Announcing Spring 2022