Lightdox at Visions du Réel 2023

Celebrating the World Premiere of DREAMERS at Burning Lights Competition

We are so happy to be back in Nyon and to celebrate the World Premiere of DREAMERS by Stéphanie Barbey & Luc Peter at the 54th edition of Visions du Réel! The film is part of the Burning Lights section, an international competition of medium-length and feature films dedicated to new, free, adventurous and contemporary perspectives in cinema.

Young undocumented people in the USA are called Dreamers and Carlos is one of them. At the age of 9, Carlos arrives from Mexico to Chicago with his three brothers and his parents. The day he turns 18, his future becomes uncertain. According to US law, Carlos is now undocumented. The slightest mistake can lead him to deportation. From defeats to successes, DREAMERS tells the story of Carlos, now 38 years old, his brothers, and the fate of 2.5 million people growing up in a country that still does not recognize them as its own.

DREAMERS is produced by Luc Peter and Katia Monla of Intermezzo Films (Switzerland), in co-production with Dirk Manthey of Dirk Manthey Film (Germany), RTS Radio Télévision Suisse and SWR / ARTE.

Anna Berthollet, co-founder and CEO of Lightdox, comments: “We are happy to work with Intermezzo Films and directorial duo Stéphanie and Luc, whose work we deeply admire and are privileged to defend once again after enjoying a rewarding collaboration on their previous film BROKEN LAND. DREAMERS reveals the particular situation of the DREAMers, within the broader and universal issues of migration and identity, through a personal and impactful story. Told against the backdrop of dynamic and multi-layered Chicago and represented by the beautiful black and white camera work of Nikolaï von Graevenitz, Carlos’s story gives a face to the uncertainty and struggle that DREAMers, 2.5 million people living in the shadow of the US legal system, experience. We are grateful to be accompanying the film internationally.”

This is the third feature documentary directed by duo Stéphanie Barbey and Luc Peter after BROKEN LAND (Locarno 2014, IFFR 2015) and MAGIC RADIO (Visions du Réel 2007).

DREAMERS was developed with the support of Swiss Federal Office of Culture, Cinéforom and Loterie Romande, Suissimage, MO/N Film Fund Hamburg, and Eurimages. It was awarded the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival Award at the Pitching du Réel, Visions du Réel 2019.

We are also very happy to be partnering with Visions du Réel once again in presenting the Lightdox Award for the project with highest international potential in the VdR- Work in Progress section of the VdR-Industry. This year the recipient of the cash award is Friday at the Window by Atiye Zare Arandi, produced by Bram Crols and Nina Payrhuber, a Belgium, Iran, Qatar co-production.