With a vision toward the future and their feet planted in the present, viewers of the film, “Sleep Dealer” allowed their imaginations to fly in this movie where technology, immigration and globalization are the themes around which this Mexican production by Alex Rivera revolves.

At 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, the audience at the Manuel Cabral hall of the Pedro Mir Library prepared to discover the unknown in this science fiction film that had produced a lot of curiosity, beginning with its name.

Scenes from a future that human beings today could only imagine are mixed with images from the reality of an immigrant who crosses cultural barriers to improve his quality of life. Each phrase contains a message. Technology is the victim, the future, the hope.

“Always being so connected at times stops me from seeing reality,” says the protagonist in one of the dialogues of “Sleep Dealer,” winner of the Alfred P. Sloan Prize for Best Scientific and Technological Focus at Sundance Film Festival and the Award for Best Script. 

Alba Cruz-Hacker

The one hour and thirty minute film is an audiovisual production that one of the viewers characterized as “a film with an excellent script that makes good use of technology.”

Dominican writer and US resident Alba Cruz-Hacker began the conversation on globalization and rural development.

“The world is connected. If there are aspects of technology that separate us, there are certainly others that unite us,” said Jáquez, author of several books that deal with immigration.

Claudio Carreras

The discussion went from film to another medium: photography. Spaniard Claudi Carreras showed the work of a group of photographers who unite the world with images that transmit desperation, the immigrant´s journey and cultural integration in the face of globalization.

Carreras commented that the photos on display show how the international movement of people unites us and the way in which cultures are blending their characteristics in the globalized world.

It was ten o´clock at night. The issue of technology, immigration and globalization were discussed. With “Sleep Dealer” the audiovisual trip to the future ended.