Celebrate the Black Experience at the Gene Siskel Film Center

Join the Gene Siskel Film Center as we continue to celebrate Black creativity, imagination, and global perspectives, with a lineup of film programs, lectures, and screenings centering Black voices across time and space.

February kicks off with two screenings of the Siskel Film Center’s Lo-Fi Sci-Fi series celebrating Black speculative imagination: NEPTUNE FROST, the electrifying Afrofuturist musical by Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman; and Sun Ra’s iconic, genre-defying SPACE IS THE PLACE.

February also features several encore presentations from the Siskel Film Center’s Black Harvest Film Festival, Chicago’s annual showcase for Black film across the diaspora, which celebrated its 31st year in November. On February 7, see FROM THE BLOCK, a vibrant showcase for Chicago-based short filmmakers, with select filmmakers in person; and on Sunday, February 8 and 15, we’re thrilled to reprise BLKNWS: TERMS & CONDITIONS, Kahlil Joseph’s immersive feature debut, following its Chicago premiere at the 2025 Black Harvest Film Festival and Visionary Award presentation.

Continuing the celebration, the lecture and screening series African Cinema: From Independence to Now, presented in collaboration with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Art History, Theory, and Criticism department, starts Wednesday, January 28 (through May 17) and surveys 65 years of filmmaking, from anti-colonial resistance to contemporary digital and magical-realist innovations.

Opening February 17, audiences can also experience the Siskel-exclusive run of MY FATHER’S SHADOW, a beautifully rendered father–son story set in 1993 Lagos, Nigeria and a Caméra d’Or Special Mention winner at Cannes.

On Monday, February 23, as part of the Siskel Film Center’s Off Center series, viewers are invited to experience a rare program of video works by Chicago native Philip Mallory Jones, spanning early experimental pieces to a glimpse of his latest Chicago-centered project.

Program Details

African Cinema: From Independence to Now Lecture Series
Wednesdays at 6:00 p.m. with Select Sunday Encores*, January 28–May 17
Surveying 65 years of African filmmaking, from anti-colonial resistance to contemporary magical-realist innovation. Presented in collaboration with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Art History, Theory, and Criticism department. *Sunday encores do not include the lecture. 

Lo-Fi Sci-Fi series
NEPTUNE FROST
Sunday, February 1, 6:00 p.m.
Tuesday, February 3, 6:00 p.m.
Afrofuturist musical and visual spectacle from Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman.

Lo-Fi Sci-Fi series
SPACE IS THE PLACE
Saturday, February 7, 2:00 p.m.
Monday, February 9, 6:00 p.m.
Sun Ra’s genre-defying cosmic vision, blending music, sci-fi, and political allegory.

Black Harvest Film Festival Encore:
FROM THE BLOCK SHORTS PROGRAM + Q&A and Reception
Saturday, February 7, 6:00 p.m.
Chicago-based filmmakers present documentary, narrative, and experimental shorts reflecting life, humor, and memory. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with select filmmakers, and a reception in our cafe. 

Black Harvest Film Festival Encore:
BLKNWS: TERMS & CONDITIONS
Sunday, February 8, 4:30 p.m.
Sunday, February 15, 5:15 p.m.
Kahlil Joseph’s feature debut fuses fiction, history, music, and social media into a cinematic meditation on Black consciousness. 

MY FATHER’S SHADOW
Opens February 13
The Caméra d’Or Special Mention winner at Cannes, this beautifully rendered father–son story is set in 1993 Lagos on the brink of political change.

Off Center series
PHILIP MALLORY JONES
Monday, February 23, 6:00 p.m.
OFF CENTER: PHILIP MALLORY JONES is a curated survey of five decades of video art by Chicago native Philip Mallory Jones, tracing his emotionally driven, screen-as-canvas practice from early 1970s experiments to a new concept sketch for his Chicago-centric project DATELINE: BRONZEVILLE, A RUNNY WALKER MYSTERY (2025).

Tickets are on sale now. For full schedules and ticketing, visit siskelfilmcenter.org.

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