Doc Films at the University of Chicago

Doc Films at the University of Chicago Doc Films is the nation's oldest film society, hosting screenings every day.
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THE BIG SHORT (Adam McKay, 2015), where being right about the crash made you rich, follows IN FREE FALL (Hito Steyerl, 2...
10/04/2026

THE BIG SHORT (Adam McKay, 2015), where being right about the crash made you rich, follows IN FREE FALL (Hito Steyerl, 2010) on Sunday, Oct. 11 at 7PM.

Crash and the rubble left behind. IN FREE FALL uses the figure of the airplane — its circulation, historical associations, and literal instances of crashing — to map movements of images and commodities against the death drive of Recession-era capitalism. THE BIG SHORT plunges us into the biggest crash of our century. The abstract and impersonal sphere of finance may not lend itself to dramedy, but the film fleshes out the 2008 crisis, showing who profited from collective loss and heroizing those who predicted the crash.

Internet phenomenon turned feature film BACKROOMS: EVERYTHING MUST GO EDITION (Kane Parsons, 2026) screens on Saturday O...
10/03/2026

Internet phenomenon turned feature film BACKROOMS: EVERYTHING MUST GO EDITION (Kane Parsons, 2026) screens on Saturday Oct. 10 at 7PM.

Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor) struggles with a failing furniture showroom business and a failing marriage. When he discovers a doorway hidden away in the basement of his store, he inadvertently slips into a strange liminal space of endless interconnected rooms. Time behaves strangely and space seems to stretch out forever — and he doesn’t seem to be alone.

GRAVITY HILL NEWSREELS: OCCUPY WALL STREET (Jem Cohen, 2011) is followed by THE BLING RING (Sofia Coppola, 2012) screeni...
10/03/2026

GRAVITY HILL NEWSREELS: OCCUPY WALL STREET (Jem Cohen, 2011) is followed by THE BLING RING (Sofia Coppola, 2012) screening on Saturday, Oct. 10 at 3PM.

Reacting to the 1%. Jem Cohen’s GRAVITY HILL NEWSREELS moves to correct the lack of coverage of the Occupy movement, stitching together 12 live-time sequences over the course of 54 days. Where Cohen offers us a meditative look at a movement of “the 99%,” THE BLING RING shows a consumerist extravaganza reserved for the rich and famous. Following a set of amoral LA teenagers, Coppola updates the American Dream for a generation all too eager to replace “Hope” with fame.

Courtesy of Video Data Bank. There will be an intermission between screenings.

Come say hi to us at Engagement Expo!
10/02/2026

Come say hi to us at Engagement Expo!

THE SUBSTANCE (Coralie Fargeat, 2024) screens Friday, Oct. 9 at 7PM and Saturday, Oct. 10 at 9:30PM.Haunted by the elusi...
10/02/2026

THE SUBSTANCE (Coralie Fargeat, 2024) screens Friday, Oct. 9 at 7PM and Saturday, Oct. 10 at 9:30PM.

Haunted by the elusiveness of ever-shifting beauty standards, one aging celebrity (Demi Moore) uses a mysterious black-market drug that offers her the ability to transform into a younger, ‘perfect’ version of herself (Margaret Qualley). However, the drug requires that the two versions alternate every seven days without exception. THE SUBSTANCE is a satire ripe with body horror and an examination of society’s obsession with the idealized body image.

10/02/2026

Beginning tonight with a David Lynch feature at 7PM

Perhaps one of the most calmly surreal of Ken Russell’s cinematic efforts, nightmare sequences in THE LAIR OF THE WHITE ...
10/01/2026

Perhaps one of the most calmly surreal of Ken Russell’s cinematic efforts, nightmare sequences in THE LAIR OF THE WHITE WORM (1988) feature murderous sacrilegious nuns, vampires seduced by bagpipes, and of course a dragon. Russell’s deep interest in pagan mythology and the Roman century is most evident here, as well as his profound investment in homoeroticism. Come for Amanda Donohoe’s fantastic outfits and giant snake strap-on, stay for Hugh Dancy and Peter Capaldi’s incredible sexual tension.

Screening Thursday, Oct. 8 at 9:30PM.

HILL OF FREEDOM (Hong Sang-soo, 2014) screens Thursday, Oct. 8 at 7PM.Mori, a lovelorn Japanese schoolteacher travels to...
10/01/2026

HILL OF FREEDOM (Hong Sang-soo, 2014) screens Thursday, Oct. 8 at 7PM.

Mori, a lovelorn Japanese schoolteacher travels to Seoul to confess his love to a long-lost partner, Kwon, only for her to be nowhere to be found. He visits a nearby cafe and writes letters to her every day. When Kwon returns from her stay in the mountains, she drops the stack of undated letters and must make sense of their chronology and Mori’s feelings.

In a strict all-girls boarding school in pre-World War I Prussia, a student falls desperately in love with one of her te...
09/30/2026

In a strict all-girls boarding school in pre-World War I Prussia, a student falls desperately in love with one of her teachers. A scandal upon its release in Weimar Germany — the film contains one of the first on-screen le***an kisses, and was saved from censorship in the United States by fan Eleanor Roosevelt — MÄDCHEN (Leontine Sagan, 1931) is an expressionistic portrayal of the struggle between discipline and desire.

Playing Wednesday, Oct. 7 at 7PM.

WHO’S AFRAID OF THE BOGEYMAN? (Helke Misselwitz, 1989) screens Tuesday, Oct. 6 at 7PM, preceded by SHUNTERS (Jürgen Bött...
09/29/2026

WHO’S AFRAID OF THE BOGEYMAN? (Helke Misselwitz, 1989) screens Tuesday, Oct. 6 at 7PM, preceded by SHUNTERS (Jürgen Böttcher, 1984). Both showing on 35mm prints courtesy of DEFA Film Library

A meditative cinéma vérité-inflected portrait of railyard workers, SHUNTERS was the product of a mature, visually precise, years-long creative partnership between director and painter Jürgen Böttcher and Thomas Plenert. SHUNTERS’ clever subversion of socialist realist norms continues with a psychological bent in Helke Misselwitz’s WHO’S AFRAID OF THE BOGEYMAN, which follows outcasts of East German society as they deliver coal for one of the few private enterprises in East Berlin.

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