premiere: ‘lucid’ movie – on black men and the pressure/challenges they face

Next up for today’s premieres is a trip short film by director Christian Boakye-Agyeman. A reimagining of what it’s like to be caught in the midst of a lucid dream, “Lucid” is an intimate portrait of three young black men caught between a dream and reality. Its an existential glimpse into the black male experience that uses lucid dreaming and sleep paralysis, to a degree, to articulate the suppression and repression of black men in our society.

“Generally, I feel that black men are not encouraged to take care of themselves as much as other demographic,” filmmaker Christian Boakye-Agyeman tells AFROPUNK. “I think it’s really important to convey strong men at state of loss because audiences tend to forget that men of color have feelings too. There isn’t enough attention brought to how dehumanizing it is to constantly prove your worth and ability in a world that judges quickly by appearance. I’ve felt this way before and I think others feel this way because mental health can be a really stigmatized issue to talk about.”

Black men can feel alone and isolated in their sentiments and the film tries to portray this. Besides, the film conveys a moment of clarity as the men find each other within their dream, hence the title “LUCID””