What is the arc of our dreaming? Filmmaker RaMell Ross’s intimate and impressionistic film is a humanist observational exploration of the community of Hale County, Alabama, where mostly black, working-class families live, work, dream, celebrate, and struggle together. Assembling a collection of seemingly innocuous occurrences, the film captures fleeting moments that make visible the very idea of interiority, giving insight into how we fashion an image of ourselves and of others and, in so doing, opens up new notions of seeing. Ross’s skill as a photographer is evident in this arresting work of visual poetry, in which the landscape is key. Music also plays a role, and Ross is not afraid to let the camera linger where others might move on, allowing interactions and experiences to develop in their own time, as they do in life. The result is a lyrical portrait of the everyday lives of people in the rural south, one that disrupts and pushes beyond the conventional, constrictive narratives that historically have surrounded black men and women in America.  TS