. Conversations at the Edge (CATE)

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. […]

Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich Lecture and Conversation

Thursday, March 25, 7:00 p.m. CT Gene Siskel Film Center Virtual Cinema Live captions available. Join artist Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich and art historian Romi Crawford, professor in visual and critical studies and liberal arts at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, for this look at Hunt-Ehrlich’s practice, including her ongoing work with the United Order […]

Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich: Speculative Archives

Monday, March 22–Sunday, March 28 Gene Siskel Film Center Virtual Cinema Closed captions available. See four recent films by the artist and filmmaker Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich, Spit on the Broom (2019), A Quality of Light (2019), Footnote to the West (2020), and Outfox the Grave (2020). Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich’s rich and often surreal works blend narrative and documentary to explore the private worlds of […]

Feb 13 – Lori Felker: Intrusions and Interruptions

Lori Felker in person Known for genre-bending explorations of human relationships, award-winning filmmaker Lori Felker (MFA 2007) debuts a collection of slippery, semiautobiographical tales of motherhood, miscarriages, and missing people. In Spontaneous (2020) she charts the loss of her pregnancy during the Slamdance Film Festival premiere of her short Discontinuity (2016), highlighting the chasm between her body’s slow-moving […]

On Margaret Tait

At the shady foot of trees Certain things grow, But at the foot of stone grow the sun-loving             wind–resisting short plants With very small bright flowers And compact, precise leaves. The wind whips the tight stems into a vibration, But they don’t break. — Margaret Tait, excerpt from The […]

Sep 27 – Margaret Tait: Poems and Portraits

Scottish film-poet Margaret Tait produced an exquisite body of work combining poetry, portraiture, music, ethnography, and animation. She studied filmmaking in Rome during the height of Italian neorealism before returning to her native Scotland in the early 1950s where she found inspiration in the contrasting daily rhythms of Edinburgh and the Orkney Islands. In an […]

On Deborah Stratman

This week I am excited to welcome undergraduate Connor Crable to write for us! Crable sharply discusses Deborah Stratman’s newest film, The Illinois Parables, which deals with a series of histories that have been buried over time.  In just short of an hour, Deborah Stratman’s newest film, The Illinois Parables, ushers viewers through a series of […]

On Heinz Emigholz

This week I am thrilled to welcome SAIC student Sidney Tilghman to the blog! Sidney highlights the ways Heinz Emigholz’s film The Airstrip explores modernity through a wide array of structures ranging from airports to shopping malls from Wrocław, Poland to Mexico City, Mexico.  Like many of Heinz Emigholz’s films, The Airstrip (2013) unspools in a specific juncture of time and […]

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