Exchange Dreams

Made during the height of the pandemic, Jue was born out of confinement. Stuck in a rented room with nowhere to go and little to do but sleep and dream, we began to wonder if limitation itself could become a creative engine. Using only our phones, my wife and I spent over 200 days in this small space, and from that time this short film emerged. Inspired by the Zhuangzi story of “Zhuang Zhou Dreams of a Butterfly,” Jue explores dream-exchange as a way of thinking about life. In Chinese, the character “觉” can form “睡觉” (to sleep) and also “觉醒” (to awaken); “觉” becomes a bridge between dreaming and waking, and a medium for an equal dialogue between lives. Though the protagonist is physically trapped in a tiny room for more than 200 days, his thoughts slip beyond the limits of his body and escape into other possible worlds.