In conjunction with the 2018 public program series Designed to be Seen: Art and Function in Chicago Mid-Century Film, exploring Chicago's filmic landscape from the mid-century through the 1970s, the Chicago Film Archives (CFA) has developed Midwest Stories, an online resource with digitized video and other supporting archival materials from CFA’s collections.

The resource exposes the breadth and diversity of films being made in this region at the time. It illustrates the overlap between commercial, industrial, and educational filmmaking with artistic, personal, and experimental film practice and—in doing so—traces this confluence of art and design back to László Moholy-Nagy and his teaching at the New Bauhaus.