Director: Debra Eisenstadt

Cast: Sybil Kempson, Gladden Schrock, Wendy Lawrence, Andrew Hernin, Louis Puopolo

Country: U.S.
Year: 2001
Running Time: 79 Min.
Format: Beta SP

Daydream Believer is a very humorous look at what happens to the star of an amateur theater company as she skips town for the Big Apple and a chance at fame and fortune. Valerie is wooed away from her life in Vermont (and her fiancé) by a TV commercial "superstar" who thinks she has what it takes to make it in New York City. Her new life is not what she thought it would be as she gets involved with a con artist, befriends some very strange characters, and can't afford the rent. Valerie finally decides to call it quits and go back home to the love and support of her friends and family. What she finds is a theater company and a fiancé who have already replaced her and friends who are thrilled with the "exciting" new life she lives in New York - she has no choice but to go back and keep up the charade. Things are different the second time around though, as Valerie attempts to conquer New York once again, but this time as the much stronger woman we've seen her become. Daydream Believer, which won the Best Dramatic Feature prize at the Slamdance Film Festival, will entice you from the very start as you voyeuristically watch a very naïve, trusting, average looking actress learn many life lessons the hard way.

--Mary Kerr

Presented By: Debra Eisenstadt and Jennifer Jackson

Though Debra Eisenstadt makes her feature film directorial debut with Daydream Believer, she has already established herself as an actress in theater, film, and television. She starred opposite William H. Macy in both the theater and film versions of David Mamet's Oleanna, on Broadway in Wendy Wasserstein's The Sisters Rosensweig, and in the film version of The Heidi Chronicles.

Jennifer Jackson, daughter of jazz DJ Julian Jackson, is a Manhattan based singer-songwriter who provides the music for Daydream Believer. The movie features songs from her critically acclaimed CDs, Slowly Bright and Birds, which have lead to comparisons to Joni Mitchell, Nick Drake, and Burt Bacharach. Jennifer Jackson will also perform at the Friday night Filmmaker's Party.