Dreamland
Documentary (56 min.)

Dreamland documents the unseen community of Las Vegas residents who exist on its margins, revealing the challenge of economic and emotional survival in an environment where everything is permissible and available --twenty-four hours a day.

In Las vegas, you don´t have to go to the Strip in order to gamble. You can lose your paycheck at the local bar in the course of an afterwork beer. You can got to the supermarket to buy diapers, and lose your shopping allowance to the video poker machines that line the entrances. Some people fantasize about making it as "professional gamblers" -- and never having to do a legitimate day´s work. Others gamble as an antodote to depression with the thrill of risk taking on the numbing effect of losing. Millions visit the Las Vegas Strip to flirt with gambling every year, but to live in Las Vegas means to confront this temptation on a daily basis. And yet Las Vegas remains America´s fastest growing city.

Through the personal accounts of several Las Vegas residents, Dreamland goes beyond the mythology of the Las Vegas Strip and the glamorous facade familiar to tourists. Among these stories is that of Lou Gerard, a "retired" tailor, who packs up his cluttered forty-year old shop, moves to Las Vegas and tries to create the life he has always dreamed about. "Rent is cheap over there," he explains, "and if you know what you´re doing in gambling, you could make a few bucks."