“Dreaming Arizona” is a fantasy film about life in a small town by Danish film director Jon Bang Carlsen set in Winslow, featuring five teenagers from Winslow High School and the bordering Navajo Nation who improvise their teenage dreams and problems.
The film will be shown at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 27, at the Winslow Theater, located at 115 N. Kinsley Ave., as the film’s U.S. premiere. Carlsen will be present during the show to give a short presentation to the movie and a Q&A following the film.
Carlsen created several movies in the American Southwest in the 1970s and 80s, including “Hotel of the Stars” (1981), “Phoenix Bird” (1984) and “Just the Right Amount of Violence” (2013). Around 2000 he lived and created movies for several years in South Africa. In 2017, Carlsen chose Winslow as the place to create a movie trilogy inspired by his own childhood and life.
“Dreaming Arizona” is the second of the trilogy, the first was “The Banality of Grief” (2020), which is a portrait of Carlsen’s late wife and their marriage, which takes places in Winslow, even though she never set foot there. The third movie is being edited this winter and presents his method called Staged Documentary.
The five actors who play themselves, as they are seen with Carlsen’s eyes, are Bryson Sheppard, Sydney Baker, Kristin Wagner, Amber Labahe and Makenzie Bush. With one exception they were members of the school’s Drama Club 2018-2020.
The scenes in “Dreaming Arizona” take place in the City of Winslow, WHS, Winslow Movie Theater and the Navajo Nation. Supporting roles are played by Dave Carrell, May Robinson, Jennifer Sheppard, Clifford Balenquah, Samara Frank, Faith Kinlecheenie, Reata Thompson, Michael and Everly Gutierrez, Tasha Labahe, Jason Willis, Phillip Moncayo, Desirey Labahe, and Oliver Lee.
“Dreaming Arizona” has been selected to be shown in prestigious international film festivals, among them being the International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam and the Krakow Film Festival.
Carlsen graduated from the well-known Danish Film School in 1977. According to the press release, he is considered one of his generations most internationally recognized writer/directors.
