Odessa Sleeps

I define Odessa Sleeps as an existential road film concerning a young woman's search for direction and meaning. I was inspired in part by the phantasmagoric wanderings of an innocent in The Wizard of Oz - another road film populated predominantly by women -- and the intellectual longing that fuels Odysseus' wanderings in The Odyssey. In writing the script and making the film, I was particularly intrigued with the relationship between the cinematic treatment of the road and the theme of identity, specifically the idea of identity as fluid and changing over time. The character of Odessa was conceived of as a means of exploring the nature of female identity. The story begins at a point where she is psychically boxed-in by the definitions that everyone in her life tries to thrust upon her. The desire to break free and escape propels her onto the road and ultimately to a place beyond her former self, over the rainbow if you will. 

I chose to use an unconventional approach to story, weaving together the threads of three central characters: Odessa, Myra and Joan. These threads converge with the appearance of the Mystery Woman, a character whose enigmatic identity relates to Odessa's dilemma. Like other characters in the story, e.g. Myra and the Sailor, the Mystery Woman mirrors Odessa in some essential way. 

I have infused the story with a sense of mysticism and framed it with two important shrine scenes, which serve to initiate and then redefine Odessa's search. Her quest for meaning and definition is set against the landscape of the American West, the myth of the West and a mix of Latino, American Indian and mainstream American cultures. Through the film, I explore the landscape and geography of the West, not as an empty space in which to create a new identity, but rather as a place permeated with the elements of myth and cultural belief, which give substance to female identity. –Artist statement