AMERICAN DREAMER

Original Title : AMERICAN DREAMER

Year: 2013

Duration : 32 minutes

Screening Format : DCP

Creative Producer : Adriana Ferrarese

Directed by: Thomas Haley

Edited by :Seamus Haley

Dop: Joseph Haley

Original Music:Bam Productions

TRAILER: 

TO WATCH OR DOWNLOAD THE FILM:

American Dreamer is the portrait of one young man searching for his way and his identity in a country that also seems to be suffering from the confusion of an identity crisis due in large part to the trauma of 9/11.Against the background of the tenth anniversary of 9/11 and Julian’s north Florida home, we observe the aftermath of this tragic moment in contemporary American history and the tensions that are tearing at the fabric of American society. 

Julian habite dans une petite ville du nord de la Floride. Après avoir écrit un poème, il prend le bus, direction Ground Zero, afin de commémorer aux côtés de ses compatriotes les attentats du 11 septembre. Thomas Haley filme un patriote ordinaire désireux d’ancrer son identité dans un projet national en crise et dresse le portrait nuancé d’un « petit blanc » qui n’a pas renoncé à l’American dream.

Emmanuel Chicon, Visions du réel 2013:

In the family home, baby-faced Julian sometimes dreams of thrusting a butter knife into Bin Laden’s throat. In a ritual that has become his reason for living, he travels from his native Florida to the Ground Zero memorial every year. He has even composed an epic poem to the glory of the American nation and its flag, which he appears to suckle like a mother’s breast or brandish like a sword: the same sword that will soon rise into the skies of New York when a proud 40-storey building is completed. Raised in Oregon, Thomas Haley is familiar with the American heartland and films it sensitively. With these faces and bodies, often shown in close-up, the film-maker successfully conveys the identity crisis currently gripping America. While the scripted show of public and multiracial recollection that opens American Dreamer  portrays the end of innocence, the moving yet mostrous character of Julian embodies one of the powerful foundations of ordinary patriotism, the stubborn and naïve belief of a «poor white boy»  who has not given up one the American Dream.

Dans la maison familiale, Julian rêve parfois qu’il plante un couteau à beurre dans la gorge de Ben Laden. Chaque année, il promène son visage poupin depuis sa Floride natale jusqu’au mémorial de Ground Zero. Ce rite est devenu sa raison de vivre. Il a même composé une ode épique à la gloire de la nation américaine et de son drapeau, qu’il semble téter comme le sein maternel ou brandir comme une épée: celle qui se dressera bientôt dans le ciel de New York quand on aura reconstruit un orgueilleux building de quarante étages. Thomas Haley, qui a grandi dans l’Oregon, connaît bien cette Amérique profonde , qu’il filme a fleur de peau. Dans ces visages et ses corps souvent saisis en close-up, le cinéaste parvient à transmettre la crise identitaire que traverse l’Amérique actuelle. Alors que le spectacle scénarisée de l’anamnèse collective et multiraciale ouvrant American Dreamer traduit la fin de l’innocence, le personnage de Julian, émouvant et monstrueux, incarne l’un des puissants ressorts du patriotisme ordinaire, la croyance têtue et naïve d’un « petit blanc » qui n’a pas renoncé à l’American Dream.

DIRECTED BY THOMAS HALEY

A native Oregonian, Thomas Haley has lived in Paris since the early 70‘s. He did his university studies in photography (University of Oregon), cinema (New York University), and art history (American University in Paris). He first worked as a photo-researcher for Magnum Photo Agency. 

Since the early 80s, Thomas Haley has worked for SIPA PRESS, covering political conflict, man-made and natural disasters from Panama to Tian’anmen Square, the Balkans and the Middle East. His work on the Bhopal industrial accident in 1984 was awarded by the World Press Awards.

FESTIVALS AND AWARDS: 

* PRIX QUALITE CNC 

* World Premiere 

VISION DU REEL 2013:

Award for the Best Short Film

* Krakow film festival- Official Selection

* Message to man, St. Petersburg- Official Selection

* Molodist, Kiev- Official Selection

* Dokumentart- Official Selection

(Award of the Marshal of the west Pomerian Voivodeship)

* Kassel Dokfest- Official Selection

* Les Ecrans Documentaires- Official Selection

* Winterthur Film Festival- Special Programme American Indipendent Films

* La Première Fois- Official Selection

* Transmediale Berlin- special screening

* International Documentary film festival- OFF CINEMA- Official Selection

(Silver Castle Award)

*Aguilar de Campo, Spain- Official selection (Best short documentary Award)

* Thessaloniki documentary film festival- official selection

*Collecchio film festival -official selection

*Bergamo film meeting- official selection

*Rostock film festival- official selection

*Documentary Edge film festival New Zealand- official selection

* World Indipendent Film Award, Warsaw- Nomination for Best Short Documentary

* Tampere Film Festival 2016- "America Today"

Available on/Disponible sur:

DocAlliance Platform 

ShortTV Platform

Distribution France: 

ADAV

Images en Bibliothèque