Bodies of Work: Documentary Media MFA Showcase (Night One)

Bodies of Work presents eight short films made by the Northwestern Documentary Media MFA cohort. Each film, created over 10 weeks within the course of the two-year program, proposes an array of approaches to nonfiction image-making. From the day shift of a contractor and his roofers, to the nighttime gig economy of a Chinese Uber driver, these films consider material sites of labor and their subjective resonances across bodies and memory.

Following the screening, Professor Edgar Jorge Baralt will join the filmmakers for a conversation and Q&A with the audience.

Films:

While They Work (Victor Ramos, 2026, 7 min, Digital)

A roofing crew works under the commentary of their foreman, whose voice reveals a system embedded in the undocumented labor he relies on.

Rutacero (Alan Medina 2025, 3 min, Digital)

Inspired by Bruce Baillie's All My Life, RUTACERO is a meditation on movement, longing, and omission. Softly translating the lyrics of a street musician, the film traverses a controlled burn along a Michoacán highway.

Flash Memories (Alan Medina, 2025, 4 min, 16mm-to-digital)

What's the price of a memory?

Girl Falling Down (Maya Castronovo, 2026, 3 min, 16mm-to-digital)

A silent performance piece about the forces that impel us towards the ground.

Once Upon A Time in Chicago (Fan Wang, 2025, 9 min, 16mm-to-digital)

Through the windshield of his car, a Chinese Uber driver moves through Chicago's days and nights. Beneath the shadows of the city's skyscrapers, poems take shape in his mind—a refuge in motion.

Shaggy’s Big Break (Maya Castronovo, 2026, 8 min, Digital)

When Shaggy asks his boss for a few weeks off, the line between reality and script becomes very blurry.

To Summon A Seer (Alan Medina, 2025, 8 min, 16mm-to-digital)

Apertured voyages, orbs of light, and memories of migration summon a clairvoyant into the big city, confounding a sense of place through blurred and distant recollection.

The Lake Listens (Fan Wang, 2026, 3 min, 16mm and digital)

When silence becomes the voice, what stirs beneath the surface of Lake Michigan?

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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