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 | CITY OF DREAMS
| Queens Premiere |
| Winner: Best Cinematography In A Short |
| Crew: | Producers: Paola Bernardini, Ornella Frisario, Joan Brooker - Screenwriters: Dylan Wolf Gantz
| | Email: | paolabernardini25 gmail.com |
synopsis
Giovanni and Ernesto embark on an adventure across the Italian countryside with a child's dream of a new life. As the reality of their situation takes hold, the myth of this "City of Dreams" begins to crumble.
director
Paola Bernardini, is an Italian director and producer based in New York. She holds a BFA in Film from the School of Visual Arts. Her thesis film "Citta' dei Sogni" (City of Dreams) gathered the most awards in 2015, including an award from the New York Woman in Film. During her stay in New York she obtained experience in filmmaking and theater production.
She was born in Swizerland in 1991 and was educated in french schools around the world (Japan, Italy, United States) where she earned a baccalaureate in Economy. She is fluent in Italian, French and English.
filmmaker's note
Constantly leaving a place that I love makes me romanticize it more, because, over time, it becomes more like a fantasy than a place on a map. There is one place I have always wanted to capture on film, Puglia, Italy.
This southern region of Italy holds a special place in my heart. It holds my family. My father's work enabled me to grow up around the world and to learn about different languages and cultures, but we always came back to visit our family in Puglia at least once a year. Everyday life with my parents and the magical one we returned to every year in Italy were two worlds that had nothing in common, but I found some strange comfort in that. With this film, I wanted to capture the growth of that feeling and what it means to me.
City of Dreams is a hopeful coming of age story: two young brothers run away from home in search of a place where all their troubles are going to be solved. They want to find a place that exists outside of reality; a place that can only exist in the mind of a child.
My own perception of Puglia fell apart when several family members passed away. I found myself wondering: How can something so tragic happen in a place I deemed so reassuring? The truth is that this concept is what “coming of age” is all about; the process of realizing that reality will always tear down our fantasies, but that conquering the disappointment of that is what gives us the strength to become adults. This is what I hope people take away from my film.
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