We, the team of the film, 99¢ Dreams, are ecstatic to announce the rescheduling of our screening. Our community is what is most important to us and we wanted to find a Covid friendly way to celebrate the completion of the film. The screening will be held in a drive-in style and virtually this Saturday on August 29th in New Rochelle, NY at 8 PM. We will have a number to text so you can send in your questions after the screening to our amazing team. We worked with the lovely Mike Abiuso, a producer and the founder of Behind The Curtains Media, who created a surreal composition to transport you into the world of 99¢ Dreams.
When it comes to our story, 99¢ Dreams, the film follows Allison, an insomniac, who is a part of a futuristic world where DVD shops rent out dreams instead of movies. When Allison visits the store looking for an escape, she unexpectedly discovers what she is really looking for behind the red curtain. Traditionally behind the red curtain in a video store separates the innocent from the taboo; what is more taboo than incessantly rewatching your whole life? This store, while created with good intentions, is filled with lost souls watching their life on their own VHS tape looking to envelop themselves in their grief.
We build fantasy worlds to address the issues that often impact those we lo_ve – addiction, mental illness, and more. In 99¢ Dreams specifically, we are paying tribute to a friend who lost to his fight with addiction, and who overdosed while we were in pre-production to this film. This experience translated into many areas of the film, and the film, in turn, was a way to process that loss. 99¢ Dreams exposes the euphoria & dark-side of nostalgia. In today’s hyper-documented world, we get lost in our timeline dreams instead of being present. We invite you to consider where you sit in this limbo, join us Saturday night as you decide.
Tickets | Website
About the Director
Jess Costa (she/her) is a New York based writer and director with a BFA in Film & Television from
NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. She is committed to telling raw, vulnerable stories and adds a sense of
play to the creation process. At the root of it all, Jess wants to create, bring our community together, and
share the work we love. She has had projects screen in festivals, such as Toronto International Shorts Film
Festival and Soho International Film Festival. Outside of film, Jess is environmentally conscious and tries
to bring that conservation to her film sets.
As a writer, she uses these fantasy worlds to address our generational traumas and the issues that often impact those we love – addiction, mental illness, and more. In her next feature, Sleep Talking, the family is haunted by demons both supernatural and self inflicted.
