Dreaming Of Saying Goodbye

Bruce Von Stiers

Dreamwisher is a film short that deals with loss and the unseen presence of a loved one. It presents an uplifting message in a slightly surreal atmosphere.

Bella is a very happy little girl until her father died. She never stopped wishing that you could see him one last time to say goodbye. Bella has a dream where she meets two other little girls, Ada and Christa. They try to help Bella deal with the emptiness she feels.

Bella is asked to pick a card from a basket then make a wish. The card is made into a necklace, which is a dreamwisher. This necklace helps bring the person you want to see into your dreams.

At the same time, there is a woman who also seems to be grieving. She looks at old photos and thinks about the past.

The rest of the film has Bella trying to get the dreamwisher to work so she can indeed say goodbye to her father. She interacts with both the girls in the dream world and the woman.

There are a few scenes with the three girls that have beautiful background music, suggesting a surreal dreamlike state.

Like I mentioned earlier, Dreamwisher is about grief and not being able to say goodbye to a loved one. That the main character is a little girl makes this film very endearing. Many of us are adults when our parents die, but to a child that has to be devastating. And to be have any chance at saying goodbye one last time would make all the difference in their lives.

Jolie Handler plays Bella. Her credits include Foster Home and Limerence. Jemma Handler is Ada. Besides Dreamwisher, Jemma has been in the film Speedy-Snacks! Antonia Cytryowicz is Christa. Her previous roles include the film We.

Julie Handler portrays the woman in the film. Julie is a co-founder of Positively Positive and the mother of Jolie and Jemma.

Dreamwisher was a production of Positively Positive. It is an online presence with uplifting articles and commentary. The co-founder of Positively Positive is Eric Handler, who in turn was the producer for the film. Eric is also the father of Jolie and Jemma and husband of Julie. He has a cameo role in the film.

Dreamwisher was written and directed by Colin Costello. I recently had the opportunity to review The After Party, one of Costello's latest endeavors. He's been the force behind several highly rated short films, including Little Man of Steel and Fade In. When Costello wrote the original script for Dreamwisher, how the loss of a parent affected a child resonated with him. He had his daughter in mind for the lead role when he wrote the script, as she was acting at that time. But then the script was shelved. Several years later an opportunity arose and Costello was now able to dust off the script and film the story.

The music for the film was done by Asaf Sagiv. Aside from composing for a few feature and several short films, Sagiv also composed for seasons of Coldcase Files and Lawless Oceans. He won the Southern Shorts Award of Excellence for Individual Achievement in Music for his work on Dreamwisher. Working along with Sagiv was Greg Richling as the film's executive musical producer. Richling's work includes the series Gimme Mo and Paris Song. He was also a member of the rock band The Wallflowers.

Sharing the duties of Director of Photography were Gus Bendinelli and Kenzo K. Le. Bendinelli has worked on several shorts along with the documentary A Week In Watts. Le has also been part of several film shorts.

Dreamwisher was edited by George Artope, who had worked on Costello's film The After Party. I'd like to list all of the people involved in the film, but it would take more than a couple of paragraphs to name them and their respective credits So here are just a few of the key behind the camera crew members who were involved with the film: Jonathan Jewel Chatten, Elias Ginsberg, Sandra Oridano, Gabby Grave, Brian Berger and Jonathan Sheldon.

Earlier I mentioned Sagiv received an award at the Southern Shorts film festival. Other members of the cast and crew received individual achievement awards from the festival as well. Both Jolie and Julie Handler received awards for acting and Costello was awarded for his writing and directing. Other people receiving awards for the film are Gus Bendinelli, Kenzo K. Le, George Artope and Eric Handler. The film also received an Award for Excellence for Achievement for Costuming.

I really liked Dreamwisher. To be able to say goodbye one last time to a loved one is a heart-tugging premise that the film carries off very well.

Dreamwisher is currently just being shown at various film festivals, so you will have to go to one of them to see the film. At the time of this writing, festivals the film will be shown at include the Beach Cities Inspirational Film Festival in Laguna Niguel, California, the Garden State Film Festival in Asbury Park, New Jersey and the Golden State Film Festival in Hollywood. It is also slated to be shown at the Oxford Film Festival in Oxford in the U.K.

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© 2019 Bruce E Von Stiers