Block Cinema: Terra Femme (2021) with Courtney Stephens

40 Arts Circle Drive,Evanston IL 60208

11 February, 2022

Description

A live documentary-performance hybrid in which Courtney Stephens investigates the history of women as travel filmmakers from the 1920s-1950s TERRA FEMME (Courtney Stephens, 2021, 60 mins, digital screening + live performance) In-person: Courtney Stephens In this live documentary-performance hybrid, Courtney Stephens investigates the history of women as travel filmmakers from the 1920s through the 1950s. Drawing entirely on archival materials, Stephens scrutinizes the traces left by these women with a movie camera, asking questions about gender and genre: what common subjects drew their eye? What social roles did they challenge, reproduce, or inhabit? What do these films say about the place of women in the economies of cinema and colonialism? Hearkening to the illustrated lectures of travel societies and 20th-century home movie projections, Stephens uses the live performance mode to reflect on the personal stakes of her inquiry as a traveler and filmmaker. The result is a film essay as moving as it is transporting. Free and open to all The Block Museum is Northwestern University’s art museum. The Block is a dynamic, imaginative, and innovative teaching and learning resource for Northwestern and its surrounding communities, featuring a global exhibition program that crosses time periods and cultures and serves as a springboard for thought-provoking discussions relevant to our lives today. The museum also commissions new work by artists to foster connections between artists and the public through the creative process. Each year, the Block mounts exhibitions; organizes and hosts lectures, symposia, and workshops involving artists, scholars, curators, and critics; and screens classic and contemporary films at its in-house cinema. The museum also reaches national and international audiences through its traveling exhibitions, publications and website. Its growing permanent collection of approximately 5,000 works focuses primarily on prints, photography, and drawings. The Museum is located on the southeastern portion of Northwestern's Evanston campus, near the lake and Sheridan Road. Parking is FREE after 4PM on weekdays and all day on weekends. The nearest parking garage is located at the Segal Visitor's Center on Campus Drive.  The Block is free and open to all.