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Director(s): Steven Sebring Producers: Margaret Smilow, Scott Vogel, Steven Sebring Cinematographers: Phillip Hunt, Steven Sebring Editors: Angelo Corrao, Lin Polito, Margaret Crimmins, Greg Smith Sound: Tony Volante |
Patti Smith: Dream of Life
Documentary
U.S.A., 2007, 109 mins, Color and Black and White
Life isn’t some vertical or horizontal line. You have your own internal world, and it’s not neat.
—Patti Smith
Not vertical nor horizontal nor neat, Dream of Life is a hypnotic plunge, a breathing collage of this legendary musician/poet/painter/activist’s philosophy and artistry that feels as if it sprang directly from her soul. A punk pioneer and spiritual child of Rimbaud, Blake, and Burroughs, Patti Smith’s fierce poetry and rock music shook up New York’s 1970s underground scene, and her work continues to be stirred organically by her rigorous mind, beloved artistic touchstones, and world events.
Shot over 11 years, Dream of Life travels Smith’s mystical interior terrain—the ideas, losses, and memories she wrestles with—as much as tracing her outward adventures. Layered with mesmerizing recitations, music, and narration, the fluid journey incorporates performances, graveyard pilgrimages and political rallies, archival nuggets, and vérité moments with her working-class parents, children, and friends. From raw, intimate sessions in her apartment to formidable incantations delivered to roaring crowds, Smith’s expression is unmediated by pretense or artifice. Remarkably—and this may be the key to her artistic potency—she doesn’t reject death or construct polarities of good and bad. Instead, she embraces darkness and melancholy in a way that’s liberating and also life affirming. As she manifests the transcendent in life, Dream of Life reaches for the ineffable in Patti Smith.
—Patti Smith
Not vertical nor horizontal nor neat, Dream of Life is a hypnotic plunge, a breathing collage of this legendary musician/poet/painter/activist’s philosophy and artistry that feels as if it sprang directly from her soul. A punk pioneer and spiritual child of Rimbaud, Blake, and Burroughs, Patti Smith’s fierce poetry and rock music shook up New York’s 1970s underground scene, and her work continues to be stirred organically by her rigorous mind, beloved artistic touchstones, and world events.
Shot over 11 years, Dream of Life travels Smith’s mystical interior terrain—the ideas, losses, and memories she wrestles with—as much as tracing her outward adventures. Layered with mesmerizing recitations, music, and narration, the fluid journey incorporates performances, graveyard pilgrimages and political rallies, archival nuggets, and vérité moments with her working-class parents, children, and friends. From raw, intimate sessions in her apartment to formidable incantations delivered to roaring crowds, Smith’s expression is unmediated by pretense or artifice. Remarkably—and this may be the key to her artistic potency—she doesn’t reject death or construct polarities of good and bad. Instead, she embraces darkness and melancholy in a way that’s liberating and also life affirming. As she manifests the transcendent in life, Dream of Life reaches for the ineffable in Patti Smith.
Steven Sebring - Steven Sebring makes his documentary feature-film debut with Patti Smith: Dream of Life. Sebring is an artist and self-taught photographer, renowned for his definitive style of merging raw realism with the fantasy of high fashion. He has shot advertising campaigns for companies such as Ralph Lauren, Lanvin, Maybelline, and Coach, and also creates celebrity portraits of artists, one of whom is Patti Smith, leading to their 11-year collaboration on this film. Sebring has also made two short films, New York Stories and Road Stories.
Screenings:
Sun. January 20, 6:15pm, Holiday Village Cinema III, Park City
Mon. January 21, 3:15pm, Holiday Village Cinema III, Park City
Tue. January 22, Noon, Screening Room, Sundance Resort
Fri. January 25, 11:30am, Prospector Square Theatre, Park City
Fri. January 25, 9:00pm, Tower Theatre, SLC
Sat. January 26, 9:15am, Holiday Village Cinema III, Park City
Sun. January 20, 6:15pm, Holiday Village Cinema III, Park City
Mon. January 21, 3:15pm, Holiday Village Cinema III, Park City
Tue. January 22, Noon, Screening Room, Sundance Resort
Fri. January 25, 11:30am, Prospector Square Theatre, Park City
Fri. January 25, 9:00pm, Tower Theatre, SLC
Sat. January 26, 9:15am, Holiday Village Cinema III, Park City
Pascale Ramonda
Celluloid Dreams
2, rue Turgot
Paris 75009
France
+33 1 4970 0370
pascale@celluloid-dreams.com
Celluloid Dreams
2, rue Turgot
Paris 75009
France
+33 1 4970 0370
pascale@celluloid-dreams.com
