Synopsis
There could hardly be a more telling contrast between the analog and digital eras than the beautifully blurry memories captured in a Polaroid picture and the thousands of pin-sharp photos on an iPhone. In this ambitious visual essay, Willem Baptist explores the visionary genius of Edwin H. Land, the inventor of the Polaroid camera. Even today, all sorts of people are keeping his instant dream alive. Former Polaroid employee Stephen Herchen moved from the United States to Europe to work in a laboratory developing the 2.0 version of Polaroid. Christopher Bonanos, the author of Instant: The Story of Polaroid, tells us, "When I heard Polaroid would stop making film, it felt like a close friend had died." Artist Stefanie Schneider, who is working with the last of her stock of Polaroid film, is using the blurring that occurs with expired film as an additional aesthetic layer in her photographic work.
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Cast
- Stephen HerchenHimself - The Scientist
- Stefanie SchneiderHerself - The Artist
- Christopher BonanosHimself - The Writer
- Caitlin FowlerHerself - The Model
- Udo KierThe Docter (Cameo)
- Edwin H. LandHimself - The visionary (archive footage)
- Ayana J.J.Herself - The future
- Angela RiccioHerself - The model
Recommendations
- 90
Film Threat
Instant Dreams makes a strong case for the necessity of instant photography. Its three main subjects are compelling and well spoken. The film’s powerful, hypnotic images, and the mesmerizing score only add to the dream-like atmosphere being conveyed. - 75
Movie Nation
Instant Dreams is still an argument for the magical in a world that is “losing magic.” - 63
Slant Magazine
While the film offers an appealingly nostalgic trance-out, it’s often short on detail, especially in terms of Stephen Herchen’s struggle to create the instant film technology, which director Willem Baptist reduces to exchanges of jargon in atmospheric laboratories. - 40
The New York Times
Baptist’s approach, treating his subjects like characters in a drama, is ultimately frustrating. - 40
The Hollywood Reporter
Any viewers actually interested in the topic would be well advised to search elsewhere for information. - 40
Los Angeles Times
As long as he maintains his focus on the notoriously private Land and the painstaking efforts of Impossible Project’s chief technology officer and Polaroid vet Stephen Herchen to recapture lightning in an SX-70, Baptist delivers something reasonably compelling. Unfortunately the bulk of the overly artsy production is preoccupied with the exploits of others.
