In this experimental update of Jack and the Beanstalk (ital), a streetwise pot dealer is catapulted on a mystical adventure when he trades his father's gold watch for a pair of psychotropic seeds.

Based on the classic fable Jack and the Beanstalk, Slipdream follows a streetwise drug dealer caught in a struggle between self-discovery and self-destruction. When Jack trades his father's gold watch for a pair of mysterious seeds, he unleashes psychic forces that lead him to Maya, a beautiful but tormented violinist under the sadistic care of a pill-pushing psychiatrist. In his attempts to rescue her, Jack chases ever-elusive highs as he flees the descending monsters of his mind. Using cinematic devices that recall Chris Marker's La Jetée and the guerrilla-style filmmaking of David Lynch's Eraserhead, Slipdream employs a bold mix of experimental techniques including 35mm motion film, thousands of still photographs, digital video, and animation. With a soundscape of internal stream-of-consciousness voices set to an original musical score, this film puts the viewer directly in the protagonist's pulsing mind. Filmed entirely on location in contemporary Los Angeles, Slipdream is an homage to the city's enigmatic landscape of ever-evolving streets, eclectic architecture, and anthropomorphic foliage.—Matthew Spiegelman