Toronto writer and filmmaker Vanessa Magic recalls having her first nightmare when she was five — around the same time she saw someone die in a car crash. Her intense dreams, she says, were a way to cope with trauma. Since then, Magic has taken note of the “storytelling” her brain does while she’s asleep, and has become fascinated with sleep disorders, which are the inspiration for her 2024 horror film, “How to Stay Awake.
” The short will have its Toronto premiere at the Monday at the Isabel Bader Theatre, where it has been nominated for two Bloodies Awards for best editing and best sound design. “How to Stay Awake” is a five-minute black-and-white experimental silent film about sleep paralysis, depicting one of Magic’s real-life experiences with the frightening condition, when the mind is awake but the body is not. Magic was dealing with a lot of stress when she felt what she describes as “skeleton fingers” digging into her left side after she woke up from a nap, as she struggled to move her body.
“It felt like skeleton fingers just pressing harder and harder,” Magic says. “And then I snapped out of it. And when I woke up, I could still feel the pressure on my side.
” Magic spoke to the Star about the art that inspires her and the therapeutic benefits of filmmaking. I used to have a lot of nightmares that would just throw my day off-kilter and put me in this state where I would feel really uneasy. So I would do this nightmare therapy, where you t.