Sweet Dreams
The Story
"Sweet Dreams" is a story of love and survival.
Set in a near future where 20-hour workdays have robbed humanity of the ability to dream, desperate and pregnant Esperanza enters a Dreamcatcher clinic. Seeking funds to survive her partner's disappearance, she uncovers a dark technology harvesting the subconscious minds of the unborn—and a dream that holds the key to her partner's fate.
OFFICIAL SELECTIONS & ACCOLADES
- 🏆 Best Sci-Fi Short — Independent Shorts Awards
- 🏆 Best Direction — WILDsound Film Festival
- 🏆 Independent Filmmakers Awards — El Encuentro Film Festival
- Mexican-American Film Festival — World Premiere
- Chicano Hollywood Film Festival
- Winter Film Festival (NYC)
- Georgia Latino International Film Festival
- California Women’s Film Festival
- Philadelphia Latino Arts & Film Festival
- FenceSitter Film Festival
- American Latino International Short Film Festival
- Sunscreen Film Festival
- IndieX Film Fest
The Filmmaker
Gary Alvarez is a Los Angeles–based Chicano writer/director whose work fuses grounded social realities with speculative storytelling. Raised in the working-class barrio of Bell, California, Gary centers stories about resistance, agency and communities pushed to the margins.
His films use genre as a cinematic tool to examine how ordinary people confront oppressive systems and imagine alternative futures. Alongside his filmmaking practice, Gary works as an educator and mentor supporting young filmmakers from underserved communities.
He holds an M.F.A. in Film Production (Directing) from Chapman University.