About the Film

The Story

Director’s Statement & Story

What an intense labor-of-love this fantasy film has been.

The film Dorme was inspired by a mesmerizing Brazilian lullaby, also by the name of Dorme, composed by multiple platinum winning, musician, Arnaldo Antunes. I heard the song in a boutique I was doing a commercial for, and bought the CD immediately. It sounded almost hypnotic. I laid on my bed listening to it, when the visuals and story came to me. The melody brought to me memories of my imagination as a child, and how quickly childhood passes by. I’m also saddened by how little of that pure innocence is given to our children in this fast-paced culture, where adult information is included in everything, even films intended for children.

The song also stirred my fascination with the power our sub-conscience minds and the world of dreams; that mysterious place our spirits go to play when our bodies sleep at night.

I was determined to make this film happen. I was able to obtain some wonderful support from generous contributors who believed in the film, and the rest I literally put my house on the line for.

The story Dorme is more complex than at first one might perceive, as there is much we can discover about ourselves in the hidden symbolisms we can find in our dreams, so I wove many of them into the film. For example, the boy in the dream seems a bit unsure on the water in a boat without an oar. When he looks to the sky to the North Star for direction, he sees three women on a swing. Suddenly, we recognize one as his mother.  The mother jumps into the water, transforms into a fish and guides his boat safely to shore.

Then there also is the laying down of the sword in one scene and the releasing of the dove of peace.

Dorme is currently being used and discussed for its deeper meanings and spiritual symbolism at Santa Rosa Junior College in their English 1A course, titled Dreams and Inward Journeys.

I have also always been fascinated by the luscious feast for the senses dreams can be. There aren’t the sorts of boundaries and restrictions we find during our waking hours. This film isn’t just for children, but is rather a delicious escape for adults as well.

I spent much time first composing the shots on paper. I had wanted to keep the effects organic and real in feeling despite it being a fantasy.  I took months designing and building the sets myself and getting the costumes and raising money. The one thing, going into it, I hadn’t realized was the complexity of the types of effects I wanted. I had no way of knowing what I would need to go through, and how hard I’d need to fight to get them to turn out the way I had envisioned, and to see this project through. There were many large obstacles to overcome for something so short.

Luckily, Dorme, attracted an amazing pool of talent, including cinematographer Svetlana Cvetko, my Lead 3-D Artist Nicholas Barnes and my editor Sharon Franklin. I had a wonderful team.

In order to make sure that Dorme stayed faithful to my intentions, I was intimately involved in every aspect of film production, down to the last frame; otherwise Dorme would have turned out quite differently. Everyone has a different style and ideas, some of which felt too sparkly commercial and cutesy.. I wanted to stay completely away from that feeling, keeping all of the elements in the film as real and organic as possible, while still making the visuals, breathtakingly stunning. The footage we shot was gorgeous.

During the effects and compositing stage, after much searching and a couple horror stories, I found my master compositor/digital-effects wizard, Steve Wright, who had the talent and know-how to create the effects I needed and who was willing to work with me frame for frame. We did it via computer, and so with much determination, and  blood-sweat-&- tears, Dorme, the dream, became a beautiful reality.

  What’s next?... I’m working on a feature length film script, much in the flavor of Dorme.