North Cook News

Block Cinema is set to host a significant screening of "The Waiting Room" (1974) on April 3, 2025. This event marks the film's first public showing in over fifty years and will take place at the Wirtz Center Chicago on Northwestern University’s Downtown Chicago campus. The screening coincides with the 2025 Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS) conference. Director Karen Sperling will attend this celebration of her work.

Karen Sperling, known as a pioneering figure in American independent cinema during the 1970s, is also the granddaughter of Hollywood mogul Harry Warner. She directed two distinctive films early in her career. At age 27, she wrote, produced, directed, starred in, and composed the score for "Make a Face," an experimental psychodrama released in 1971. Two years later, she assembled an all-woman film crew to create "The Waiting Room," which explores personal and institutional relationships between women.

"The production crew is made up of women who wrote, who have feelings, and the environment extends right into the story, reinforcing the conception,” Sperling stated in a Daily Times article from 1973. Despite its innovative nature, "The Waiting Room" was largely forgotten after limited screenings due to lack of distribution.

Michael Metzger, Pick-Laudati Academic Curator for Cinema and Media Arts at Block Cinema, noted that “Karen Sperling’s films have an uncanny, otherworldly-yet-familiar quality." He added that they feel like “beloved cult classics from an alternate timeline.”

Block Cinema has collaborated with industry-leading video preservation specialists Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC) to restore "The Waiting Room" from U-matic tape transfers—the only surviving copies after original prints were lost or discarded.

Metzger remarked on the restoration process: “As an act of cinematic archaeology, it’s fascinating... The challenge for us at Block Cinema has been to understand what tools are available for bringing these films back to life."

A discussion featuring Sperling will follow the screening. She will reflect on her filmmaking journey and challenges faced by independent filmmakers during her era. Joining her will be Michael Metzger and Peter Alilunas from the University of Oregon.

This event complements Block Cinema’s Films by Women/Chicago ’74 series presented in Fall 2024. It offers audiences a chance to experience a nearly lost film and engage with its creator.