Dream Dinners
Dream Dinner is a series of short films that reimagine what it means, or can mean, to dine. To consume more than food and be one with memory, with reverie, with one's self.
Dream Dinners
Dream Dinner is a series of short films that reimagine what it means, or can mean, to dine. To consume more than food and be one with memory, with reverie, with one's self.
Fantasy Dinner
by Ronika McClain
I say, "Look under those silver dishes.” Of course the girls didn’t see them until now, but once they open them, they see they have identical diamond rings to mine. “I promise to love you until the end of time, in all ways possible. I love you as my family, as my lovers, as my friends.”
Ronika McClain dreams of reunion, a monumental day and night that sits at the start of forever.
About the Dreamer: Ronika McClain (b. 1992) is a performer, writer, artist and amateur archivist. She grew up in California, was raised by New York City, nurtured by Asheville, North Carolina and currently lives in Oakland, California. She works with and through history and popular culture, drawing connections between our constructions of self and our collective experiences of cultural production. She believes we make things that mirror our conditions and that our conditions mirror our productions in an infinite loop. As a biracial woman, she tells her own story to illuminate the spaces glossed over by a white supremacist hetero-patriarchal historical narrative of art. She is primarily concerned with how we construct the idea and category of “woman.” She has a passion for cinema, fashion, camp, sex and deep intimacies between friends. She identifies as a leatherdyke, former barista, sexual assault and abuse survivor, singer and gay divorcée. She works primarily in video, but writes just as much. She earned a BFA in Photography at Parsons School of Design in 2014 and studied in the MFA Program at the Lamar Dodd School of Art.
Last Night I Ate for the First Time
by Jefferson Ellison
"Last night, at 3:07 am with the crickets in my ear and my lover in my bed, I found myself at the universe’s table. In a seat that held me almost biblically, I heard her whisper grace into the evidence of manuka and felt the wicker behind my eyes inflame. There, at my little table for one, I became alive."
Jefferson Ellison finds himself at “the universe’s table” in this meditation on time and space, simple pleasures and tough questions.
About the Dreamer: Born and raised in Asheville, North Carolina, Jefferson Ellison has been working in fashion since he was 16. After earning a degree at North Carolina State University’s College of Textiles, Ellison moved to NYC and expanded his body of work to include sales strategy, content creation and public relations. Under Ellison’s creative direction, JAWBREAKING, a digital platform offering interviews and investigative reporting, op-eds, fashion editorials and prose, became known for its irreverent sense of youth and boastful hints of Southern charm. Upon his return to Asheville, Ellison founded Jawbreaking Creative, a creative agency that offers consulting in editorial, advertising, events and influencer outreach as well as data analysis, trend forecasting, brand monitoring and more.