Dealing with chronic sleeplessness, filmmaker Boris Van der Avoort undertakes a personal quest to examine his mental and physical space, looking for clues to his insomnia. He begins by “entering differently into the night,” making his observations about the behavior of nocturnal people, places, and things on a literal and figurative map of restless nights. The investigation translates cinematically as an essayistic journey, with the filmmaker as tour guide, researcher, and subject. Experts too are drawn into his mission in the forms of a naturalist, hypnotist, and therapist, among others. Images and vignettes are beguilingly superimposed, spellbinding sequences of dream-logic are intertwined with lucid encounters, and the narration is inquisitive and contemplative, which all combine in a shrewd reverie. The Wakeful Sleeper traces recognizable constellations out of seemingly disparate insights, unfolding in scenes that are alternately playful, disquieting, and inventive—like a dream.  TM

Filmmaker Q&A available

Closed Captioning available

This film is only available to viewers in the United States