Dreamscapes: A Static Vision Film Festival

Overview

UPDATE, November 25, 2021: Due to Melbourne's lockdown, Static Vision didn't take place in July as originally planned, and will now run from Thursday, November 25–Sunday, November 28. This article has been updated to reflect that change.

Sydney film collective Static Vision has hosted two physical film festivals in Sydney — but it isn't limiting its cinephilia to just one city. Coming to Melbourne's Lido Cinemas from Thursday, November 25–Sunday, November 28, it's getting dreamy, too, via a four-day program that's all about imagined worlds, fantastical visions and the places we journey to when we slumber.

Dreamscapes: A Static Vision Film Festival kicks off with a 15th-anniversary screening of Satoshi Kon's Paprika — which is the type of movie absolutely everyone needs to see at least once on a big screen. The premise: in the near future, a device lets a therapist enter patients' dreams. And yes, you now know where Inception got its inspiration.

Other highlights: documentary Ecstasy, which features music by David Lynch and Lykke Li; Slow Machine, about an actress who meets a NYPD counter-terrorism specialist; Window Boy Would Also Like to Have a Submarine, which plays with magical portals; and Dreaming Under Capitalism, an experimental doco that tasks 12 people with remembering and analysing their dreams about work.

The sublime Waking Life has the honour of closing out the program, with Richard Linklater's Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy and Wiley Wiggins-starring animated film marking its 20th anniversary.

Shorts films will also grace Dreamscapes' screens, because dreamy movies don't just come in big packages.