MIDLAND STORIES
a film by Peter Coonradt


Midland School is the microcosm, the metaphor, the paradigm, the embodiment of what I find beautiful, sane, healthy, worthwhile and the direction I'd like to see humanity move. The people in Midland Stories embody strengths and values I admire, and they add up to a community I'm lucky to be connected to. The truest reflection of a boarding school is the lives of people who went there.

Midland Stories is a sequel to “Midland,” the movie I made a couple years ago about my rediscovery of Midland School after being away from it and not thinking about it for forty years. If you haven't seen that first movie, I'd suggest watching MIDLAND before Midland Stories. It's like taking geometry 1A before geometry 1B.

That first movie takes place entirely at Midland, and it's meant to convey the sense of place and the flow of rugged, elemental daily life. However it doesn't confront the question of how this rustic school is relevant and connected to the rest of the world. That's what was in the back of my mind the whole time I was making Midland Stories. What has real value? How can you apply your Midland experience to live a fulfilling, useful life? How can we make the rest of the world more like Midland?




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