Capturing an Oneiric State: Dreams and Film with Jane Schoenbrun

You sit in a dark room, focus in on the glowing light of the movie screen in front of you, and enter a new state of consciousness: one in which place, time, and identity are suddenly fluid, where you are free to float through a slipstream of light and sound.

Critics and filmmakers have long been aware of the intimate connection between the filmmaking medium and the dream state, but how specifically do artists use the tools of cinema to replicate such an ephemeral experience as getting lost in a dream? Join filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun (We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, The Eyeslicer, collective:unconscious) for a personal tour through the history, theory, and practice of dreams on film, from the early surrealism of Maya Deren to present-day masters like David Lynch, all the way to Schoenbrun’s own work. We’ll look at case studies that illustrate the tools, rules, and cinematic ideals that have been used to immerse viewers within an oneiric state throughout cinema history, and attempt to answer the question: what does it take to effectively transport one’s dreams to the screen?

Instructor:
Jane Schoenbrun (they/she) is a non-binary filmmaker, producer, and curator currently in post-production on their narrative feature debut We’re All Going to the World’s Fair. Jane is the co-creator of The Eyeslicer, director of A Self-Induced Hallucination, a producer on Aaron Schimberg’s Chained for Life, an EP on season one of Terence Nance’s Random Acts of Flyness (HBO), the creator of the omnibus ‘dream film’ collective:unconscious (SXSW 2016), and the founder of the Radical Film Fair, which drew 2,000+ attendees in its first year. Jane has served as the Film Lead at Kickstarter and the Associate Director of Programming at IFP.

Tuition: $80