Excerpt from the documentary California Dreams.
Toeing the line between documentary, fiction, and uncomfortable comedy, director Mike Ott (Littlerock, Festival 2010; Pearblossom Highway, Festival 2012) returns with an eccentric portrait of five aspiring actors in Lancaster, California, whose Hollywood dreams are a world away, despite their geographic proximity. Cory (Cory Zacharia), struggles to find the money for a flight to Germany for a film role he’s been offered by a friend. This is not an easy proposition given that he hasn’t had a job in years, and his mother gets by on welfare. Other dreamers orbiting Cory and the town include lonely Filipino Patrick (Patrick Llaguno) and the virtually homeless Carole Anne (Carolan J. Pinto) who practices her Oscar acceptance speech in the car she lives in. Ott continues to draw inspiration from this sunbaked corner of California, a world away from Hollywood despite being just an hour’s drive by car.