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Malawicultures

Daydream Therapy

  • Daydream Therapy
© Courtesy of UCLA Film & Television Archive
Genre : Drama
Type : Fiction
Original title :
Principal country concerned : Column : Cinema/tv
Year of production : 1977
Format : Short
Running time : 8 (in minutes)

Bernard Nicolas' Daydream Therapy, set to Nina Simone's haunting rendition of "Pirate Jenny" poetically envisions a hotel worker's escape from workplace indignities through vivid fantasy.

Activist-turned-filmmaker Bernard Nicolas's Daydream Therapy 1980 is a fantasy of black resistance to everyday exploitation.

Structured in parallel to its striking soundtrack, the film escalates from Nina Simone's restrained version of Pirate Jenny to the Afrocentric free-jazz of Arche Schepp's Things Have Got to Change. The film is one of the key rediscoveries of the UCLA restoration project, a fantastic response to everyday oppression and a militant call to arms.

Director, Producer, Writer, Cinematographer, Editor : Bernard Nicolas

USA, 1977, digital video, transferred from 16mm, b/w & colour, 8 min

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  • Malawi : Blantyre Arts Festival

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