As her family travels America in an RV, teenage Leilani is torn between her father’s dream of freedom and her desire for a normal teenage life.
SYNOPSIS
A family of five sells everything and moves three kids into an RV—convinced they will learn more from experience than school. At the heart of the story is twelve-year-old Leilani and her dreamer father Eric. Set against some of America’s most spectacular landscapes, we watch Leilani grow up from 12 to 19—as Eric keeps reaching for more freedom and she begins craving the very things he is trying to escape.
Filmed over seven years, this intimate father-daughter story becomes a larger exploration of freedom, family, and what happens when the people you love begin wanting different lives.
Director Statement
When we met Leilani’s family in 2019, they had just sold their house in Iowa and moved three children into an RV. They wanted less overhead, more time together, and an education for their kids built around experience rather than school. We had read "Nomadland, "but following a family undertaking this experiment offered a fresh perspective on the state of the American Dream. As the cost of that dream rises, how do you afford a good life—and still have time to live it? Like so many Americans, we were asking that question ourselves.
Leilani's family set out before the pandemic, but their choices increasingly spoke to a broader reconsideration of American life. Remote work reshaped where people could live, while frustration with public education intensified. When they later opened their marriage to a third partner, their search for freedom extended into love and commitment. Their story kept revealing new layers of resonance in a country reimagining work, school, marriage, and family.
We believe in films that embrace how complicated life is. In The Dreamer’s Daughter, the tension between individual freedom and commitment becomes an intimate family struggle: how do you make room for what your child needs without giving up everything you want for yourself? At a time of deepening polarization, we hope the film reveals shared struggles beneath different visions of a good life, and opens conversations about how one can live by our values while making room for others.
ABOUT FILMMAKER(S)
Director/Producer Vanessa Carr
Vanessa Carr is a documentary director and cinematographer known for intimate, character-driven cinéma vérité. Her work has appeared on HBO, Netflix, Disney+, and PBS and screened at Sundance, SXSW, Tribeca, TIFF, IDFA, and other major festivals. She was named to DOC NYC’s 40 Under 40 and is a LEF/CIFF and Film Independent Documentary Story Lab Fellow. Vanessa specializes in filming people through moments of profound change, bringing the intimacy and visual storytelling of her cinematography to her work as a director.
Director/Producer Josh Gleason
Josh Gleason is a documentary director and producer whose work explores American life through intimate, deeply observed stories. He co-directed the feature documentary The Disrupted and has directed and produced work for PBS, Showtime, The Atlantic, This American Life, and NPR. His television credits include Finding Your Roots, American Experience, and The Circus. Across film, television, and radio, Josh’s work is defined by long-term access and an interest in how family, work, and social change shape people’s lives. Josh is a LEF/CIFF Fellow, a Film Independent Story Lab Fellow, and a member of the DGA.
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