Awake, But Dreaming

Directed by

Kerry Laitala

"This completely hand processed 16mm film was shot in the Hirschgang Oberer, an extended arched hallway at the Akademie Schloss Solitude, where I was in residence intermittently from 1998-2001. Awake, but Dreaming recreates a sense of an endless cyclical dreamscape that is conjured up from the deep recesses of the imagination. The images are coupled with a mysterious soundtrack producing uncanny associations: the flapping of wings, shrill cries of birds, a revolver fired off following unseen footsteps. A disembodied hovering presence evokes a menace that is intimated through the sonorous resonance, but never manifests itself. The dreamer never reaches the apex of consciousness, only lingers repeatedly in the periphery of alchemically enhanced light and shadow."