Dreams In Nightmares BFI Flare
Three friends in their mid-thirties as they road trip across the Midwestern United States in search of their friend who has seemingly disappeared off the grid.
Dreams in nightmares, Shatara Michelle Ford
Following three friends as they road trip across the country to look for their friend they cannot get in contact with, Dreams in Nightmares is an understated and contemplative exploration of the realities of Black queer life in America. Whilst tackling race, gender, sexuality and family - the film is a moving and uplifting story that puts friendship and community at its heart. We are first introduced to Z (Denee Benton) who, after being let go from her university job, decides to visit her friends - corporate go-getter Tasha (Sasha Compère) and free spirit Lauren (Dezi Bing) in New York. The fourth member of the group, Kel (Mars Rucker) has been MIA for longer than usual so they decide to travel to their last known address and find them.
With three distinct and complex protagonists, it could be said that there is already enough for a feature but In their second feature, director Shatara Michelle Ford doesn’t give themselves an easy task. The road movie is a staple of the American canon but is reimagined here with a new lens. Whilst films like Thelma & Louise (1991) did start to peel back the veneer of the American road film, it is from a straight white perspective. In this film we see the ways 3 queer Black women and the people they interact with experience life away from the metropolitan centres. The film asks the question, how can queer people of colour exist in the modern world, and navigate the pressure to not only survive but thrive.
Michelle Ford plays with form and audience expectations to represent the complexity of their subjects. There are dream sequences that dip into surrealism without fully diving in. This film is incredibly earnest, it is an open heart that explores its topics with sincerity. That is not to say there are no moments of levity but it is very clear on its standing and representation of its characters.
“This film is incredibly earnest, it is an open heart that explores its topics with sincerity.”
Dreams in Nightmares’ main failing is its ambition, the sheer amount of characters and themes mean that threads are introduced quickly and dropped. Z is in a polyamorous relationship but her primary partner who owns the home they share is offering to put her name on the lease. At one point they visit Kel’s parents who are not accepting of Kel’s pronoun change. At one stop they go to an open mic and we start to explore the experience of an asian trans woman before moving on. These are just three examples of offshoot stories or plotlines that are never really explored and elaborated on in an impactful way. In one scene we learn that Tasha had ambitions to be an actress but this is never mentioned again. It doesn’t actually add to our understanding of the character and the scene could have been removed entirely without losing anything. Whilst none of the film is boring it is often over stimulating with the film’s road narrative, meaning it has to literally drive away from characters and stories and on to the next place. Dreams in Nightmares acknowledges that Black queer women are beautiful in their variance and the validity of all different choices and ways of living in this late-stage capitalist swamp at the expense of narrative cohesion.
The end card which reads ‘For All of Us’ represents the film’s noble but ultimately overly ambitious attempt to represent the breadth of the queer Black experience. Shatara Michelle Ford is definitely a director with a unique vision and one to watch. The film’s main failing is its ambition, the sheer amount of characters and themes mean that threads are introduced quickly and dropped. The end card which reads ‘For All of Us’ represents the film’s noble but ultimately overly ambitious attempt to represent the breadth of the queer Black experience. This is definitely a director with a unique vision and one to watch.
Release Date: March 23rd, 2025 (BFI Flare)
Directed by Shatara Michelle Ford
Written by Shatara Michelle Ford
Produced by Pin-Chun Liu, Naima Abed, Shatara Michelle Ford
Starring Denée Benton, Mars Storm Rucker, Dezi Bing, Sasha Compere, Charlie Barnett, Jasmin Savoy Brown Editing Cyndi Trissel
Runtime 128 minutes