On the Battlefield

In the southern Illinois region known as Little Egypt, a sound recordist revisits the flat fields where the Pyramid Courts once stood—the public housing that formed the heart of the Black community in his hometown, Cairo. His microphone captures the fleeting sounds of the past, present, and future amid the grass, trees, and sky. Throughout the film, the voices of the Black United Front Cairo, a Black Power movement led by Reverend Charles Koen, guide the sound recordist—and guide us—in a search for connections across liberation struggles, near and far. On the battlefield, these voices march toward resurgence.