Filmed over seven years, Dream trains is an exploration of the dreams and nightmares of train commuters from cities around the world at a time of great political upheaval. 

Multi award winning documentary filmmaker Ross Domoney has been busy traveling around world capitals, from Washington DC to Athens, Paris and most recently Kiyv. The creator of this 6 ep documentary series have been asking train passengers one simple question:

"What do you dream about in your sleep?"

Through the delicate and revealing language of dreams, everyday citizens open up and share their deeply personal feelings about the state of the world and how they see themselves in it. 

Most recently the team has been filming on trains across Ukraine (March 2022) as the war broke out. 

The cities featured in ‘Dream trains’ are at crossroads: Paris, the liberal metropolitan capital, watched with anguish as Le Pen nearly clinged to victory. Kiyv, the lively Ukrainian capital, locked in and locked up in the face of the Russian onslaught. And buzzing capitals  the world over fell silent as the Covid pandemic kicked in, physically gutting their trains while filling up the dreams of their commuters: dreams of a life that no longer exists.

At times, filming has taken place deep underground, in gritty spaces that we normally pass through without attention. In this series the labyrinths of the underground have been transformed from public spaces of cold transit into intimate private terrain, where the symbolic language of dreams allows commuters to share their wildest fears and fantasies.

The mesmerising result of this compilation of dreams is an extravagant stream of scenarios: quests and dark thoughts told by workers, aristocrats and eccentrics alike - dreams that illustrate, in the most poetic and yet grounded of ways, what it is like to live in these cities in turmoil.

In Kyiv, Ukraine (filmed 2018) , a battle-hardened man who recently returned from war in the east shares a dream of his mother standing over his coffin. Back then, the soldiers thought they were the only ones whose dreams were traumatised by war. Now, four years on, almost of all of country's sub-conscious is affected by the total war disseminating their country.

In Catalonia, amongst the political crisis of independence a young girl describes her dream:

“I dream I’m taking an elevator, and I’m going to a certain floor, and the moment that floor arrives, it doesn’t exist. And it goes to the next floor, and it keeps on going up…because the floor I’m trying to get to isn’t there.”

In Lviv, Ukraine (2022) thousands run for cover in the train passageways as the bomb sirens sound.

Scenes of political spectacle often spill over into the station passages too: in Washington DC, at the time of Donald Trump's inauguration, carriages full of his supporters ride the metro en route to the White House, amongst racial tension.

The series will serve as a mental map of cities in troubled times, linked together by the anxious commuters riding their train systems. Much like veins in a body, these transit lines and the carriages that traverse them will take the audience on an unforgettable journey, painting an allegoric picture of our world in a time of uncertainty.

The carriages and metro passages underground have been transformed into mind-bending visual spaces that have a sci-fi quality to them, allowing the audience to reflect on the cinematic language of dreams.

Dream Trains is an outlandish portrait of our world in the era of uncertainty

What funds we are looking for?

We are looking to secure £50,000 to get this series edited and distributed. With this money, we can get a top notch editor on board, a sound designer, a music composer and colour grader. These funds will also massively help for getting this project distributed and sent out to the world. The funds will also be used to film the final part of content we need to complete this series. That filming will take place in Russia. 

What will investors get?

By supporting this project you will help to get it made and put out into the world in these times of political uncertainty. We believe dreams are a crucial language to explore our shifting political climate. All investors will be credited as being crucial supporters of this project. We are also open to meeting investors in person or online to discuss how we can make maximum impact from this project through our joint connections. After making this series a success, we would like to turn the attention to audience members who will be given the chance to donate to Ukrainian charities. 
 

format

Train Dreams is a series compiled of six; 12-15 minute episodes. 

90% of this series filming has been completed. 

We are also open to this film being a one off 30-40 minute film, where the footage is held together as one film by a script with a recorded VO that links the sections together.

Audience

We see Dream Trains as appealing to anyone who is interested in the political state of the Western world today, and how this shapes the psyche of everyday people We feel our series would gather a large global  interest as we have filmed in Ukraine both before and amongst the war. We are also using a different language (dreams) to examine the feeling of uncertainty and change currently reverberating through our political landscape. This series could appeal to young and old people alike. Since the pandemic, there has also been a renewed interest in the dream world as populations try to rediscover which kind of world they would like to live in. Many of us dreamt big when we were left to ourselves and our thoughts, locked down whilst the world changed around us. 

The Team

The Director and Producer

Ross Domoney is a multi award winning freelance film-maker from the UK. His documentary work focuses on social/human rights issues, urban geography, character lead narratives and the affect of political protest on cities, authorities, and underground political and cultural movements. Ross studied documentary film making at the National Film and Television School. His work has been published in the Guardian, Al Jazeera, The Wall Street Journal, Discovery Channel and has been recognized by the BBC. 

The Co-Director and producer

Antonis Vradis is a geographer at St Andrews University who thoroughly enjoys venturing into the visual/arts realm. He is also a producer on the Metro Dreams project.