Radical Dreams, Underground Sounds: 13 Films Presented by Dweller
11 Episodes
Founded in 2019, the Dweller festival celebrates the Black roots of electronic dance music, spotlighting a lineage of trailblazing musicians, producers, and DJs who created the sound that spread to clubs across the world and amplifying the contemporary artists who carry on their legacy. This diverse selection of narrative, documentary, and experimental works, curated in collaboration with Dweller, contains films that explore Black musical technology and imagination, and salute the dance floor as a site of Black joy, protest, personal transformation, and ecstatic communal liberation.
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Maestro
Episode 1
Directed by Josell Ramos • 2003 • United States
Starring Larry Levan, David Mancuso, Frankie KnucklesThe origins of New York City’s legendary underground dance-club culture are explored in this kinetic cult documentary—a vivid chronicle of a scene that became an oasis for the city’s queer and B...
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45:29Episode 2Exhibitionist—Purpose Maker Mix
Episode 2
Directed by Jeff Mills • 2004 • United States
Witness the artist at work as legendary Detroit techno pioneer Jeff Mills creates a live DJ mix with astonishing, hypnotic dexterity.
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Shakedown
Episode 3
Directed by Leilah Weinraub • 2018 • United States
Charting the eight-year run of Shakedown, a peripatetic black lesbian strip club in Los Angeles, director Leilah Weinraub attempts “to portray the before and after of a utopic moment.” Weinraub presents a world unto itself, shaped by the desires...
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10:46Episode 4Songs for Earth & Folk
Episode 4
Directed by Cauleen Smith • 2013 • United States
Made in 2013, this short by Cauleen Smith is composed entirely of 16 mm and Super 8 found footage and is structured like a blues song, with a live-improvised electro-organic soundtrack created by Chicago-based band the Eternals.
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03:28Episode 5I Held the Truth in My Hands
Episode 5
Directed by Anaïs Duplan • 2020 • United States
A poem by Anaïs Duplan unfolds forwards and backwards in a trancey, beat-driven audiovisual remix.
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19:52Episode 7Lunar New Year
Episode 7
Directed by S*an D. Henry-Smith • 2021 • United States
Starring Ryan Clarke, Justin Allen, Slant RhymeS*an D. Henry-Smith narrates a series of portraits recorded during a day out in New York City, capturing, in the artist’s words, “quiet encounters in the polyphonic city.”
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09:21Episode 8MOSQUITO: The Movie
Episode 8
Directed by LYZZA and Enantios Dromos • 2022 • Brazil
Electro-pop avant-gardist LYZZA slips into a surreal neon underground in this visual accompaniment to her mixtape of the same name.
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Hyperfate
Episode 9
Directed by Christelle Oyiri • 2022 • France
Reflecting on fate, destiny, and the untimely deaths of rappers Tupac Shakur, PnB Rock, Pop Smoke, Takeoff, and XXXTentacion, director Christelle Oyiri fashions a visual memento mori that asks: how did rap become a mortuary factory for tragic heroes?
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17:22Episode 10Pacific Club
Episode 10
Directed by Valentin Noujaïm • 2023 • France
Starring Azedine Benabdelmoumene, Benjamin Bertrand, Julien MézenceIn 1979, the Pacific Club was opened in a basement in La Défense, the business district of Paris. It was the first nightclub for Arabs from the suburbs—a parallel world of dance, swea...
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14:27Episode 11Trial Period
Episode 11
Directed by Kiernan Francis • 2023 • United States
Starring Emmanuel Alejandro Molina, Cory Wilson, Fashion LaBeijaA queer Black DJ finds a haven in New York’s underground club scene—until an old friend reenters his life and jeopardizes everything.
