Dreams

The award-winning writer and director of Tótem shares her love for Aki Kaurismäki’s “strange, funny filmmaking spirit,” dedicates her selection of Barbra Streisand’s The Prince of Tides to her mom, and talks about Werner Herzog as a “warrior” in Burden...

Delve deep into the experiences, dreams, struggles, desires, and art of Black communities across the globe with these essential films.

Sep 18, 2026 — Shatara Michelle Ford is an African American filmmaker. Their debut feature, Test Pattern, was released by Kino Lorber in 2021 to critical acclaim, landing on over a dozen best-of-2021 lists. It received nominations at the Gotham Awards, Spirit Awards, and...

Robin D. G. Kelley is a professor of history at the University of California Los Angeles. His books include Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination; Africa Speaks, America Answers: Modern Jazz in Revolutionary Times; Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times...

Paul Coates is a professor emeritus of film studies at Western University, Ontario. Previously, he taught at Georgia, McGill, and Aberdeen, and his books include The Story of the Lost Reflection (1985), The Gorgon’s Gaze (1991), Lucid Dreams: The Cinema...

Howard Hampton has written for Film Comment, Artforum, and many other publications. He is the author of Born in Flames: Termite Dreams, Dialectical Fairy Tales, and Pop Apocalypses.

Jonathan Rosenbaum’s books include Cinematic Encounters: Interviews and Dialogues (2018), Cinematic Encounters 2: Portraits and Polemics (2019), and In Dreams Begin Responsibilities: A Jonathan Rosenbaum Reader (2024).

Aug 6, 2019 — Once, in 1977, Werner Herzog read a news item about a volcano that was supposed to erupt in Guadeloupe and one man living there who refused to evacuate with the rest of the island’s population. Herzog being Herzog, he immediately...

Mar 23, 2017 — With a monumental body of work spanning nearly six decades, thirty feature films, and a staggering array of styles and genres, Akira Kurosawa has been a cornerstone of our collection since we released Seven Samurai as our second Criterion edition...

Nov 22, 2016 — This month, we’ve brought two new Criterion editions to the United Kingdom: Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams, a visually sumptuous showcase of the Japanese master at the height of his imaginative powers, and Punch-Drunk Love, Paul Thomas Anderson’s deliriously eccentric take on...