Bodies of Time: Documentary Media MFA Thesis Showcase (Night Two)

Bodies of Time is the 2026 Northwestern Documentary Media MFA Thesis showcase. These films consider ways in which bodies across geographies inhabit a place and how places can settle or unsettle bodies across human and nonhuman timescales. In these works, we search for wild orchids in Yunnan, China; observe the state of migratory limbo of a Tibetan mother and son in Kathmandu, Nepal; wayfind historical encounters across anachronistic timescales in a Chicago canal; and explore the tension between change and stasis as experienced through meditations on place in Chillicothe, Illinois.

Following the screening, Block Cinema Curator Michael Metzger will join the filmmakers for a conversation and Q&A with the audience.

Canal Land (Alan Medina, 2026, 15:30 mins, 16mm-to-digital)

Anachronistic encounters along industrial banks convey the use and abuse of a Chicago canal. Settlers are frozen in time, the waters remember, and an amphibian presence persists.

Our Time Here (Victor Ramos, 2026, 20 mins, Digital)

A portrait of a Midwestern town, observed through the routines of its aging population.

Orchidaceae (Maya Castronovo, 2026, 18 mins, Digital)

a search for an endangered orchid species in Yunnan, China, anchors an investigation into

networks of cultivation, and the porous boundary between the authentic and the staged.

Between Two Skies (Fan Wang, 2026, 35 mins, Digital)

A Tibetan mother and her eleven-year-old son living in Kathmandu, Nepal, wait for a family

reunion in Canada, uncertain when they’ll finally be able to leave.

Total runtime: approx. 88 min

Co-presented by Northwestern’s School of Communication, The Department of Radio-TV-Film, Jane Steiner Hoffman and Michael Hoffman, and The Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art.

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