Smothering Dreams

In this film made over ten years, filmmaker Barbara Sonneborn goes on a pilgrimage to the Vietnamese countryside where her husband was killed. She and translator (and fellow war widow) Xuan Ngoc Nguyen explore the meaning of war and loss on a human level. The film weaves interviews with Vietnamese and American widows into a vivid testament to the legacy of war.

In this autobiographical experimental work, Daniel Reeves examines childhood memories, family history, and the personal aftermath of violence. Drawing on family photographs, Polaroids, and home movies dating back decades, the film assembles a poetic collage of images, voiceover, and text that reflects on trauma, memory, and the search for meaning across generations.