Skip to main content
Dream Team film image; man looking at a woman while she looks away

Dream Team

Altered States

This event has passed

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

Directors
Cast

Esther Garrel, Alex Zhang Hungtai, Isabelle Barbier, Fariha Roisin, Minh T Mia, John Fell Ryan

Credits
Country of Origin

USA

Year

2024

Language

English

Film Contact
Links
19+
91 min
Comedy Experimental & Avant Garde Horror & Thriller Women Directors
Smudge Films

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

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 headshot; Dream Team director

Lev Kalman

Whitney Horn headshot; Dream Team director

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)

Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre

Ali & Ava

Dir. Clio Barnard
95 min

Bradford, West Yorkshire. Ali (Adeel Akhtar) is a music nut, and the most sympathetic landlord you will meet in a movie this year. Ava (Claire Rushbrook) is a teacher, a widow, and a grandmother. Clio Barnard's love story has music, humour and hope.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

A Brighter Summer Day

Dir. Edward Yang
237 min

Edward Yang's landmark movie is based on the true story of a crime that rocked Taiwan in the early 60s, set against a simmering backdrop of restless youth, rock and roll, and political turmoil.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Everybody to Kenmure Street

Dir. Felipe Bustos Sierra
95 min

This rousing documentary (100% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) never puts a foot wrong as it recreates a tense, prolonged stand-off between the police and the citizens of Glasgow when an Immigration Enforcement squad attempt to arrest two men from their homes.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Silence of the Lambs

Dir. Jonathan Demme
118 min

Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) gives FBI serial killer hunter Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) pointers from his maximum security cell. But is he trying to aid the investigation, or just messing with her head?

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Milisuthando

Dir. Milisuthando Bongela
128 min

Milisithando uses the filmmaker's life as a context to dive into the "independent" Transkei of apartheid South Africa, offering us a new reading of this history.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Thelma & Louise

Dir. Ridley Scott
129 min

In this iconic feminist road movie BFF Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon take off for a weekend getaway that turns violent when one of them is attacked. The stakes get higher as they flee the scene. Winner: Best Original Screenplay (Callie Khouri).

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema