Dreams give us hope that in the future we can achieve what only exists in our minds. Sometimes I get pulled out of my own world and I realize my dreams are so small. When so many opportunities exist, it’s easy to take what’s in front of you and never reach further. Humans tend to get bogged down in the petty and pointless and fail to enact larger scale transformations for fear of failure. However, when things get so bad that it seems almost unbearable to continue, that’s when the real dreaming can occur. In 2006, filmmaker Diego Quemada-Díez visited a rural school in the biggest slum in East Africa, Nairobi’s Kibera. There he interviewed some 50 children, who were orphaned by AIDS and struggling with extreme poverty. Inspired by these stories, Quemada-Díez wrote a poem that served as a catalyst to express their fears and dreams through the eyes of one boy.
I Want to Be a Pilot is the story of Omondi, a 12-year-old boy orphaned by AIDS who dreams of taking flight. To him, being a pilot represents freedom. A person who can fly is someone who is able to escape the horrors that engulf those on the ground. Omondi recites his dream of flying to where he can be reunited with his parents, touch the ground with bare feet, and drink clean water. His wishes are simple, but profound. Shot on location in 16 mm, this short evokes the same wistfulness and grittiness of the poem.
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Diego Quemada-Diez made this short film back in 2006 and after playing dozens of festivals including Sundance, Hamptons Int’l, Edinburgh, Lorcano, and Telluride, and winning two dozen awards everywhere from Silverdocs, Cleveland, and Los Angeles Film Festival he’s finally made his first feature. La Jaula De Oro or The Golden Cage played in this year’s Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section. It follows three teenagers as they attempt to illegally cross from Guatemala into the United States.
Jeffrey Bowers is a tall mustached guy from Ohio who’s seen too many weird movies. He currently lives in Brooklyn, working as an art and film curator. He is a programmer at the Hamptons International Film Festival and screens for the Tribeca Film Festival. He also self-publishes a super fancy mixed-media art serial called PRISM index.
Previously – Never Like the First Time!