USA, France and Rwanda / 2016 / 74mins / Experimental, Romance / English and French

The debut feature from Rwandan filmmaker Anisia Uzeyman is a mesmerizing tour through the Afropunk underground in which a pair of artists (played by the director and her real life husband, hip-hop poet Saul Williams) fall in love while traveling the United States. Shot entirely on iPhones in a hallucinatory haze of color-saturated images, the aptly titled Dreamstates is an otherworldly vision of America as seen through the eyes of an outsider.

Anisia Uzeyman

Anisia Uzeyman, actress, playwright and director was born in Rwanda. She studied drama at the Superior School of Theater in France. Anisia has written and directed four plays and recently starred in the award winning film, Tey / Aujourd’hui, by Alain Gomis and the feature, Ayiti Mon Amour, by Guetty Felin. Her directorial debut Dreamstates was shot entirely on iPhones and starred Saul Williams, William Nadylam and Beau Sia. The film premiered at the LAFF in 2016. She also directed music videos for Sons Of An Illustrious Father’s Opposite Of Love, Saul Williams' The Noise Came From Here and Mehdi Cayenne’s Rivière. Her first book, a poetic treatment of her original screenplay Saolomea, Saolomea was published by Not a Cult
in Fall 2021. Learn More