Canadian Premiere
Two sexy Interpol agents: No St. Aubergine (Esther Garrel, Call Me By Your Name) and Chase National (Alex Zhang Hungtai, formerly of Vancouver’s Dirty Beaches) travel to Mexico to investigate a conspiracy involving deadly, poisonous gas-emitting coral. Dream Team is a bizarro homage to 90s basic cable television; a bleary-eyed binge-watch of a six-episode season that unfolds like a horny, fever dream complete with trippy, ever-changing title sequences and educational passages about the nature of coral.
Directors Lev Kalman and Whitney Horn have developed their brand of lo-fi, art house camp since the mid-aughts. They return here with another absurdist experiment in genre filmmaking; a neon-soaked VHS aesthetic that is equal parts comforting and uncanny. Not your average movie, Dream Team is a disorienting, post-modern, eco-espionage sitcom broadcast from another world; X-Files meets The Pink Opaque by way of Tim and Eric.
Supported by
Media Partner
Community Partner
Esther Garrel, Alex Zhang Hungtai, Isabelle Barbier, Fariha Roisin, Minh T Mia, John Fell Ryan
USA
2024
English
Indigenous & Community Access
Credits & Director
Executive Producer
Blake Horn, Jane Schoenbrun, Pierce Varous, Sarah Winshall
Producer
Lev Kalman
Screenwriter
Lev Kalman, Whitney Horn
Cinematography
Whitney Horn
Editor
Lev Kalman, Whitney Horn
Production Design
Whitney Horn
Original Music
John Atkinson
Lev Kalman
Whitney Horn
Lev Kalman (b. 1982) and Whitney Horn (b. 1982) have been making films together since 2003. Their distinctive style blends lo-fi 16mm photography, dreamy electronic music, philosophical musings, and steady bursts of absurdist humor. Their films Blondes in the Jungle (2009), L for Leisure (2014), and Two Plains & a Fancy (2018) have played at international festivals including Rotterdam, BFI London, and BAMCinemaFest. Kalman is based in San Diego and Horn in San Francsico.
Filmography: Blondes in the Jungle (2009); L for Leisure (2014); Two Plains & a Fancy (2018)
Altered States
See more films in this series
Timestalker
Inspired by old Hollywood’s grand romantic epics and paying homage to costume dramas, speculative fantasies, swashbuckling adventures, and 80s music videos, Timestalker is both a giddy genre confection and a heartfelt tale of hard-won empowerment.
Dream Team
Two Interpol agents investigate mysterious deaths caused by poisonous gas-emitting coral in this campy homage to 90s basic cable. It unfolds as a bleary-eyed binge of a six-episode season, complete with ever-changing title sequences.
Rock Bottom
Inspired by the musician Robert Wyatt and the recording of his 1974 classic of the same name, Rock Bottom is a psychedelic, animated musical odyssey about a drummer reinventing himself after an accident that leaves him paralyzed from the waist down.
Else
Anx and Cass are forced into lockdown together in Anx’s apartment to avoid a mysterious virus which causes people’s bodies to painfully fuse with whatever they are touching. Else is a grotesque, apocalyptic body horror that's bound to get under your skin.
Párvulos
Years after a viral zombie outbreak, three young brothers are forced to fend for themselves in a remote cabin in the woods. Isaac Ezban (The Similars) presents a gory, coming-of-age fable with a warm heart and a dark twist, destined to be a cult classic.
40 Acres
A band of bloodthirsty cannibals threatens a family of farmers living in a post-apocalyptic wasteland in rural Canada. R.T. Thorne’s feature debut is a thrilling, crowd-pleasing genre gem with a standout cast of Black and Indigenous actors.
Fréwaka
A Dublin nurse is sent to a remote Irish village to care for a reclusive woman. Haunted by a dark past, her night terrors invade her reality. Aislinn Clarke delivers a chilling, feminist folk horror that favours atmosphere over jump scares.
She Loved Blossoms More
Three brothers unleash cosmic horror when they build a time machine out of their mother's wardrobe to bring her back from the dead. Veslemes’ surreal body horror is a hallucinatory freak show with a pitch-black sense of humour and skin-crawling visuals.
Rita
Based on a real tragedy, this magical realist fantasy from the acclaimed director of La Llorona follows Rita, a thirteen-year-old Guatemalan runaway determined to escape from her abusive home life and the inhumane conditions of a children’s shelter.