Wide Awake

Portrait of An Artist as Insomniac

Wide Awake is filmmaker Alan Berliner´s uniquely personal tour through a lifelong obsession with insomnia. In the spirit of his highly acclaimed personal documentary films, Berliner once again uses his own life as a laboratory, this time to illuminate how a restless mind that won´t shut down at night leaves him feeling "jet lagged in my own time zone."

A brilliantly edited blend of the hilarious and deeply personal, Wide Awake weaves hundreds of archival film clips, consultations with sleep specialists, an overnight stay at a sleep lab, conversations with family members, home movies, dream visualizations, and behind the scenes footage of the film being made, into a brutally honest self-portrait of a sleep-deprived and sleep-obsessed night-owl filmmaker. Torn between the creative passion he derives from the night, and the emotional tugs of love and family life, only the birth of his first child can get Berliner to consider joining the day shift.