. Conversations at the Edge (CATE)

Electric Visions: Chicago’s Groundbreaking Video and Computer Art

Thursday, February 09, 6:00 p.m. “When I think of computer art I think of Chicago.” – Gene Youngblood, Send Magazine, 1983 In the 1970s and 80s, Chicago was home to a community of video artists and engineers—many of them women—whose groundbreaking experiments with analogue and digital computers produced a body of astonishingly rich and influential work. This […]

Announcing Spring 2023

Join us for the spring 2023 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 screenings and artist appearances, including Colectivo Los Ingrávidos (2/16), Deborah Stratman (3/30), Claudia Hart (4/6), Marwa Arsanios (4/19 and 4/20), Apichatpong […]

Fall 2021 Season Recap

We would like to thank all of you for joining us both virtually and in person for our screenings and conversations with the fantastic artists of the Fall 2021 season of Conversations at the Edge! A big thank you as well to all of our presenting partners, including the School of the Art Institute of […]

Announcing Fall 2021

The Fall 2021 season of Conversations at the Edge starts Thursday, September 23! Join us for theatrical screenings, virtual artist talks, and virtual screenings! All programs take place at the Gene Siskel Film Center of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and on the Film Center’s virtual cinema platform. More info at saic.edu/cate. […]

That’s A Wrap! – Fall 2019

Thank you for joining us for our Fall 2019 season! See you in January 2020!                    

October 17 – Narcisa Hirsch: Contact Zones

Curator Federico Windhausen in person and Narcisa Hirsch via Skype A pivotal figure in Latin American experimental cinema, Narcisa Hirsch is renowned for her striking explorations of the body, agency, and desire. Emigrating from Germany to Argentina in the 1920s, Hirsch first took up artistic practice through painting, then shifted to performances and happenings before […]

When Art Reveals Unspeakable Social Reality: Recalling Anna

This week for our SAIC student writing series Natalia De Orellana grapples with Massimo Sarchielli and Alberto Grifi’s Anna. She finds herself invested in the directors’ ethics, yet rebuffed by their use of their camera. “We preferred,” explained Grifi, “a movie about reality rather than undertaking the struggle to create a slightly less revolting reality.” Anna | Thursday, April 2nd | Introduced […]

Apr 2 – Anna

Thursday, April 2nd | Introduced by Dennis Lim, Director of Programming at the Film Society of Lincoln Center Recently restored by the Cineteca di Bologna, this astonishing 1975 documentary centers on the titular pregnant, homeless 16-year-old girl whom filmmakers Alberto Grifi and Massimo Sarchielli encountered in Rome’s Piazza Navona. Mainly shot on then-newfangled video, it documents […]

On Encounters

Alexander Stewart takes a moment to write about the upcoming program Encounters: Experimental Film and Animation from Croatia for the CATE blog. Encounters, screening Thursday (12th) and Saturday (14th) of this week, explores the rich history of Croatian film and animation. This intensively researched program reveals the unique history of Croatian avant-garde cinema–a history that runs in parallel to […]

Mar 12 & 14 – Encounters: Experimental Film and Animation from Croatia

Thursday, March 12th & Saturday, March 14th | Introduced by Alexander Stewart, filmmaker, curator, and Assistant Professor at DePaul University Zagreb, Croatia has long been an important hub for animation, experimental film, and avant-garde culture. Informed by unique cultural, intellectual, and political legacies, filmmakers there have produced decades of strong, challenging, and fascinating experimental work. Filmmaker Alexander […]

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