Part of New Adventures in Nonfiction
Sunday, March 19, 2017, 6:30 p.m.
Bartos Screening Room

Dir. Deborah Stratman. 2016, 60 mins. 16mm. In this mesmerizing, morally provocative work of experimental cinema, eleven parables relay histories of settlement and removal, progress and violence, messianism and resistance, all occurring somewhere in the state of Illinois. This textured, vibrantly filmic work utilizes reenactment, archival footage, observational shooting, inter-titles, and voiceover to question our sense of who we are as citizens. In our desire to explain the unknown, who or what do we end up blaming or endorsing? "At once an experimental documentary, a work of historical excavation and an insistently moral ideological critique," wrote Manohla Dargis, The New York Times.

Please note: The Illinois Parables is on a double bill with The Prison in Twelve Landscapes (with director Brett Story in person). The same ticket includes admission to both films.

Tickets: $15 (free for members at the Film Lover level and MoMI Kids Premium levels and above). Order tickets online. (Members may contact [email protected] with questions regarding online reservations.)

Ticket purchase includes same-day admission to the Museum (see gallery hours). View the Museum’s ticketing policy here. For more information on membership and to join online, visit our membership page