I Have Always Been a Dreamer, 2012.
Directed by Sabine Gruffat.
SYNOPSIS:
A documentary travelogue and film portrait of two cities in contrasting states of development: Dubai, UAE and Detroit, U.S.A.
I Have Always Been a Dreamer begins with a single long take scanning the inner city area of Detroit. The camera gazes up at the old skyscrapers reaching into the sky. The buildings, we’re told by anonymous voiceover, are largely unoccupied, towering remnants of a once-prosperous town. It’s like we’re on a tour of a city-sized museum, in a rail car that fluidly carts us in between stone and steel monuments.
That I Have Always Been a Dreamer spends some of its running time in an American-themed amusement park seems to confirm the intentional parallel. It suggests Detroit is itself a symbol of Americana making profit now only from its legend. And we’re first introduced to another city of skyscrapers – Dubai – with a shot of a fun fair, again implying the tourist’s-eye-view is no accident.
There are many of these hypnotic long takes in I Have Always Been a Dreamer, sweeping around two cities, one on its way down, the other on its way up. As fascinating as states of decay and construction on an epic scale may be to look at, though, we may as well be looking at models. As we’re treated to a safe museum experience from inside the rail car, we’re not allowed to get out and touch – there’s just no engaging with this methodically-framed, obliquely told doc.
Comparing Detroit and Dubai is an interesting concept, even if attempts to portray the personality of Dubai gets very basic results (it’s apparently a mixture of pioneer town and stifling, corrupt desert outpost) and Detroit remains unknowable. Visually, however, the contrast of cold industry metal and sandy future paradise is arresting. For a doc that’s mostly surface, it just holds your attention by capturing the atmosphere of two metropolises, if not burrowing to a deeper analysis of either.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Brogan Morris – Lover of film, writer of words, pretentious beyond belief. Thinks Scorsese and Kubrick are the kings of cinema, but PT Anderson and David Fincher are the young princes. Follow Brogan on Twitter if you can take shameless self-promotion.
Originally published April 23, 2013. Updated April 11, 2018.
