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I wrote, directed, shot, and edited Tears of a Forgotten Memory during a two week directors workshop at Montclair State University. It is a short experimental film that recreates several aspects of a lucid dream I had dreamt weeks before. In the dream I discovered that the subconscious world around me was purely subconscious, rather than reality. An entity in this dream took the form of someone close to me. Upon posing the question (mentioned several times in the film): “Am I Dreaming,” this entity soon became hostile, and I was quickly aware that they were a figment of my imagination. The feeling of powerlessness in my own mind stuck with me, and brought me to create this short film. In the film I utilize different techniques to make the “dream” as real as possible. Lighting was a key element in this effect, as well as in locating a power dynamic between the two characters. In the first scene, the faces are illuminated in an ocean of darkness to disassociate the characters from the world—putting them in a separate realm of dream. One of the biggest cares in my mind while both shooting and editing was pacing. The pauses between dialogue and time I give each particular shot is akwardly real. This film was important for me to create, and excersize my vision. I wanted to share the feelings that we can rarely see or even articulate from when we’re secluded from the world. After years of watching films with metaphorical dream sequences, very few have felt really like a dream. That is the problem I tackle in this production.
Directed by Ezra Dov Atkins (USA)