In 11 chapters, director Deborah Stratman (O’er the Land, Hacked Circuit) interprets and reinterprets the forces that have shaped the history and people of Illinois. With subjects ranging from monuments to messianism, from advanced mathematics to natural disasters, the film takes viewers on a Midwestern expedition and inquisition, incorporating a shrewdly textured sound design and a contemplative disposition throughout. The composite is further enhanced by the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Alexis de Tocqueville, among others, giving voice to the past while simultaneously questioning the authority with which these voices are commonly imbued. An enigmatic mix of archival imagery and contemporary 16mm footage, the film’s vignettes each concern a singular time and place, yet taken as a whole, the fragments combine to tell a more expansive and ineffable narrative—a scintillating celluloid story quilt.  TM