Dreams (a short film)
By Ashley Soto
No matter the stress, anger, or sadness, Hamlet was right by identifying sleep as an escape. It can be something beautiful or terrifying. We are all like children. We dream and make up our own beautiful worlds and our own monsters. Imagination and dreaming is something to keep close to you!
Process
At first, I wanted to make my own animation video but because I had no concrete idea as to what it would be about, I decided to explore. Happily, I realized that I wanted to use my film skills, both in editing and cinematography. The only problem that remained was that I didn’t know what to do. I decided that everyone has an escape from reality, that being dreams. I finally made my film and through a child’s perspective, showed that we all dream and it is something beautiful but also scary. I was able to use my knowledge about film to create a more than satisfactory film that was fun and spoke to me.
Meet the Pair
MENTEE ASHLEY SOTO & MENTOR KAREN PENNAR
Ashley’s Anecdote: My year in Girls Write Now has been very amazing. It was not only great because of the many new things I learned and did but also because of my meetings with my mentor. It has been a huge pleasure to have a mentor like Karen. She has guided me through my college process and even helped me with my schoolwork with her amazing suggestions and comments. I’m still surprised at how much we have in common.
Karen’s Anecdote: A year ago I might not have imagined that one day I’d be chatting with a Latinx high school senior from the Bronx about the number of cats on an island in Japan—for a paper she was writing on the topic. But here we were, Ashley and me, talking about Japan, which she wants to visit and I’d recently been to. And about medicine—she wants to be a doctor, I studied public health. Oh, and we’ve talked about poetry, too. Our meetings have been great, and I can’t wait to see what you do next, Ashley!
