We Are Not Dreaming
Date:
January 12, 2023
We Are Not Dreaming
We Are Not Dreaming
by Ulisses Arthur
Cup Filmes, Céu Vermelho Fogo | Brazil
Fiction | 1st feature
Looking for Sales Agents, Festival
Logline
Ciro, an overworked medical student and pole-dance instructor, loses his stability as Brazil’s university system collapses. Forced out of his home, he finds refuge with António, a reclusive DJ, an encounter that reshapes both their survival and their intimacy.
Synopsis
Ciro, a young Black gay medical student and passionate pole-dance instructor, is barely holding his life together. As both the semester and a fragile relationship implode, delayed financial aid leaves him struggling to pay rent on the small studio where he teaches pole dance to fellow first-generation university students, a space that has become a lifeline for all of them.
When he is suddenly forced to leave his last safety net, his godmother’s home, Ciro’s balance falters even further. With nowhere left to land, he accepts an unexpected offer of temporary shelter from António, a reclusive DJ who lives in the building next door. Just as Ciro’s pole-dance collective reaches its own breaking point, António steps in as both an emotional anchor and a source of practical support.
As the pressures around them intensify, Ciro and António begin to build a shared rhythm, discovering that the strength, fluidity, and resilience Ciro finds in pole dancing can also guide them through crisis. Together, they learn that even in the hardest times, the right connection can turn any space into a dance floor, and maybe even a home.
Director’s Profile
Ulisses Arthur holds a degree in Cinema and Audiovisual from the Federal University of Recôncavo da Bahia (UFRB) and works as a screenwriter and director.
He directed the short films CorpoStyleDanceMachine (2017), The Best Nights of Veroni (2017), and Islands of Heat(2019), which were screened at several festivals, including the Brasília Festival of Brazilian Cinema, Janela Internacional de Cinema do Recife, Goiânia Mostra Curtas, FestCurtasBH, Cine Ceará, Curta Kinoforum, Pirenópolis.Doc, Fórum.Doc.BH, and Curta Brasília.
His most recent short film, They Dug a Grave in My Heart, has been selected for more than 30 festivals to date, including the FICCI – Cartagena de Indias Film Festival, Doc.Coimbra, Olhar de Cinema – Curitiba International Film Festival, and Mostra Tiradentes, winning several awards. The film was voted one of the ten best Brazilian short films of 2024 by ABRACCINE (Brazilian Association of Film Critics) and the best Brazilian short film by ACECCINE (Ceará Association of Film Critics).
His feature film project We Are Not Dreaming was selected for the 9th BrLab and received the Vitrine Filmes Award, as well as support from the Paradiso Incubator, under the mentorship of film director Marcelo Gomes.
Company Profile
CUP FILMES is a São Paulo–based production and distribution company founded in 2007 by siblings Ivan and Ilaine Melo, dedicated to author-driven cinema. The company has produced acclaimed films such as Body Electric, by Marcelo Caetano (Rotterdam IFF); Alvorada Palace, by Anna Muylaert and Lô Politi (Sheffield Doc/Fest); Bob Spit: We Do Not Like People, by Cesar Cabral (Annecy and Ottawa awards); The Mother, by Cristiano Burlan (Málaga Film Festival); and Tinnitus, by Gregório Graziosi (Karlovy Vary IFF).
Its most recent feature, Baby, by Marcelo Caetano — a Brazil–France–Netherlands co-production — premiered at Cannes Critics’ Week in 2024, where it won the Fundação Luís Roedler Rising Star Award, and has since received over 30 international prizes in more than 100 festivals worldwide.