Originally printed in the Mt Shasta Herald 11/7/12
By Steve Gerace
The world is finally waking up to “Dreams Awake,” the feature movie filmed on and around Mt. Shasta and released on DVD in 2011.
Since April, 2012, Jerry Alden Deal’s film has won 14 awards at 18 different film festivals, including Best Picture at Vegas Cine Fest in Las Vegas last month and Best Feature Film and Best Lead Actress for Erin Gray at the International Filmmaker Festival of World Cinema in the UK.
From Beverly Hills to Greenwich Village and beyond, Dreams Awake is finding appreciative audiences. Deal said his non-violent film’s positive theme helped it get chosen as the opening night showcase film for the 2012 Angel Film Awards Monaco International Film Festival, scheduled for Dec. 7 to 10 in Monte Carlo.
The publicity is helping spur sales of the DVD, which has now been purchased by buyers in 30 countries, Deal said.
During Q & A sessions he’s been conducting at festivals, Deal said he often answers questions about Mt. Shasta and the spiritual and metaphysical themes in his film.
He has not yet received a distribution offer that he couldn’t refuse, but Deal said he and his Way To Go Media team are looking at video on demand possibilities and a future “Dreams” screening in Mount Shasta.
He said the BBC plans to film their festival party in Monaco and show it in major European media markets. “That will help us,” said Deal.
As synopsized on one film festival website, “Dreams Awake” focuses on a disconnected family that gets stranded near Mt. Shasta while on vacation. Their family drama expands into a mystical adventure. Giving “a glimpse into the subtle but intense possibilities of the human spirit, the story delves into that magical lore between reality and illusion, dreams and awake, and life, death and immortality.”
Written, directed and produced by Deal, “Dreams” has been on a long and winding road; production began in Mount Shasta in 2007.
Deal says he’s anxious to move on to other projects, including a screenplay he wrote called “One Hand Clapping,” about three brothers from a small town in Texas. Deal said the story is partially about reincarnation. A “One Hand Clapping” trailer created for a marketing package can be seen at: www.onehandclappingmovie.com. (Correction: Actually that trailer has not yet been edited. The one on the website is just a concept trailer. The new trailer should be on the site by Jan. 2013).
It’s the adrenaline rush of the actual filming that Deal likes the best. “It’s about the craft, and trying to get better at it,” he said.
For more about “Dreams Awake,” see: https://dreamsawakemovie.com. More about the film’s recent festival success can be found at: https://dreamsawakemovie.com/media/film-news.
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