In this psychological thriller, Dale (Ellyn Jameson) is a detached woman who earns a living by waking strangers up in the morning. She spends her day making house calls, after agreeing to stand-in for a colleague. Dale enters a patient’s house, and is unsettled by the mess she finds. Bradley (Paul Archer) explains he’s been plagued by nightmares, and refuses to get out of bed. Though Dale feels obligated to convince him otherwise, she can’t help but form a pitiful kinship with the man paralyzed by his own dreams.
Director’s Vision for ‘Are You Awake?’
We’ve all been stuck on the hamster wheel. Wake up. Stay inside. Work another precious day of your life away. Try to remember the interests you used to have. Order the same food you ate last Thursday. Lay in bed at 8pm because you’ve run out of things to say. Some more adaptable humans took up living room aerobics, while divorce rates and homelessness sky rocket.
Getting out of bed is a powerful act. It’s brave. We choose to live each time we place our feet on the rug. Thats when the story started for me – I wanted to watch what happens on the day you decide you’ve had enough. Powerless to change the world around you, so you’re simply crushed by the weight of your own sheets.
Are You Awake? is a deeply intimate story following a person who no longer sees the point of it all. With sprinkles of sci-fi and mystery, the film highlights the dread of staleness, the impact of a bad idea, and the role of companionship in a world weary to step outside. Feature script available.
