Shatara Michelle Ford’s sophomore feature Dreams in Nightmares is a Black road trip film with a big heart, full of warmth, healing, and beauty. With their debut film Test Pattern, Ford announced themselves as an essential new voice in Black cinema, with a focus on the lives and struggles of Black women. Here, Ford tackles similar themes with a wider scope that includes Black femmes, queer love, and non-monogamous relationship structures. An even mix of comedy and drama, Dreams in Nightmares is a work that feels both casual and cathartic.
Laid off from her teaching job, Z (Denée Benton) is unsure how to move forward. What’s a creative writing professor to do without students? Is teaching what she really wants, or is it time to switch gears? Z often dreams of a doorway opening into the unknown, but she always wakes before walking through it. Her loving partner Reece (Charlie Barnett) is much more confident, insisting that now’s the perfect time to join their lives together, inviting Z to put her name on the deed to the house they share. It all feels too good to be true––the lover, the house, the time to finally work on her novel. Yet Z is hesitant––is it the state of the world or her own self-doubt? Or maybe this is just the first time she’s been able to stop and consider her choices. Over in New York City, her best friend Tasha (Sasha Compère) has also lost her job and is newly stressed about her living situation with her flighty friend Lauren (Dezi Bing), who she had been supporting financially. In the midst of it all, their mutual friend Kel (Mars Storm Rucker) has seemingly disappeared without a trace. On a whim, Z flies to New York to join her friends and embark on a cross-country road trip to find Kel.
What follows is the story of three Black queer femmes coming to terms with themselves and each other as they try moving toward an uncertain future. Economic inequality, anti-trans legislation, the lack of funding and jobs for the arts, and the loss of community are all in the background of their journey, adding layers of meaning to each scene. Each person in the friend group has an arts background––writing, poetry, visual art, and performance. In one memorable scene, they attend a poetry reading hosted by a beautiful trans poet who temporarily steals the whole film. Dreams in Nightmares is very much about the intersection of art, life, and friendship. Whatever its occasional conflicts, Z, Tasha, and Lauren’s time together is depicted as beautiful, precious, and essential to their creative endeavors.
Ford’s obvious love for these characters radiates from every shot. The warmth of their skin, the beauty of their hair, and the way they embrace each other feel radical to witness on the big screen. It’s been seven years since Girls Trip – already somewhat dated when it came out – and it’s refreshing to see a group of queer Black femmes – diverse in gender identity and sexually open – have fun together onscreen. It’s a film that feels current by simply depicting the daily struggles of our lives without heightened melodrama or despair. Dreams in Nightmares is a radically optimistic film for our troubled times.
Dreams in Nightmares premiered at the BlackStar Film Festival.
The post Dreams in Nightmares Review: Shatara Michelle Ford’s Sophomore Feature is a Cathartic Work of Healing and Beauty first appeared on The Film Stage.
