Insomnia Al Pacino Wiki

The public is waking up to the talents of New York City filmmaker Alan Berliner, who premiered his latest documentary "Wide Awake" at 2006 Sundance Film Festival. The Emmy Award winner takes his own life-long struggle with insomnia, a problem that can be caused by one of about 80 different sleep disorders that plague millions of people.

In this first-person account, which Berliner directed, wrote and narrated, views his insomnia as a blessing and a curse. While he works 24 hours shifts frantically cataloging film rolls and memories, and editing (and re-editing) his latest projects, he realizes that most of the country calm and quiet enjoying a good night's sleep.

"Since I am a card-carrying suffered from insomnia and an extreme Night Owl to boot, I had great days and bad days to make the film – who did it both painful and funny when I was too tired to actually work with the film, he says.

In addition to fatigue, classic symptoms of severe sleep deprivation include increased sensitivity to pain and noise, irritability, confusion, stomach problems, and hallucinations – all of which may seem ridiculous to others, but quite painful to the sleepless.

Using old film clips and vintage songs, "Wide Awake" tells the darkly funny story of how Berlin can not seem to change their internal movie screen, doing 24-hour newsreels, features and documentaries. He wants to fade to black, but can not seem to turn off the projector in his mind.

Berliner's fascination with the relationship between information overload, movies, and sleep began more than 25 years ago with his experimental film "City Edition" (1980). In this black and white Card – Just a cat nap in a movie, so to speak – he uses a newspaper printing press to start the movie, which consists entirely of a dizzying montage of found materials, including old news from around the world. Each movie clip is connected visually, aurally, or thematically into a loose pattern. At the end of the film, a man wakes up and turns off his alarm clock, indicating the rush of images was only a dream, and the pictures just a moment meaningful.

"The purpose of displaying images that dream is to make sense of non-sense. The use of the dream sequence in "City Edition" is a way to tie the overwhelming array of information … that is inextricably woven into the experience of modern urban life, "Berliner says.

He takes joy in exploring the "factory where random alignments and plausible connections and can be produced … every night. "That is, when he has the luxury to actually fall asleep.

Like many other artists, "says Berliner to do their best work after midnight. Also like other artists, he prefers to explore issues close to home. His previous films are more like personal essays than actual documentaries in that they ask more questions than they answer. "The Sweetest Sound" study the universal relationship between a person's name and his or her identity. "Nobody's Business "is a warts and all look at his deceased father." Intimate Stranger "tells the life of his world-traveling grandfather, and" The Family Album "combines found footage from old home movies to make a statement about the role of family in our lives.

"These films are designed to transcend the particular the details of my special family, "he said. "In the spirit of the way memoirs are supposed to work, my story is a window out to the viewers that opens up a range of issues … and offer new ways to look at themselves. I'm trying to use the common levels of experience that people have. "

Whether the common experience is to maintaining family relationships, realize your identity, or just trying to get some shut eye, Berliner takes his position as a personal essayist seriously.

"I like to think that I have a contract with the public, "he said. "They trust me enough to know that I never intend to become self-indulgent or sentimentalize. My Movies are open and honest and made in the spirit of opening a topic, with humor or irony when appropriate, with the naturally occurring pathos. "

Copyright 2006 Leslie Halpern

Leslie Halpern is the author of “Dreams on Film. The Cinematic Struggle Between Art and Science” (McFarland & Company), a book that analyzes representations of sleeping and dreaming in the movies. She also wrote “Reel Romance. The Lovers’ Guide to the 100 Best Date Movies” (Taylor Trade Publishing), a book that reviews date movies for couples, and suggests romantic ideas inspired by these films. Visit Leslie’s website at: http://home.roadrunner.com/~lesliehalpern