The Dreamer series has been a dream T has been working towards ever since he first wrote his first song, ‘Southern Time,’ a few months after testing HIV positive in 1996.  With whatever time he had left (T was turning 21 at the time), he wanted to make a positive difference in our world through his musical talents and the power of the story of how he acquired HIV.

After six months of recovery in the hospital, T pursued his Southern Time dream again.  He wrote screenplays and continued to compose music.  Then, in 2015, T moved back to Toronto and started to find the members of the Southern Time Band, the rock band for the cinematic rock musical for what was to become the Dreamer series.

In 2020, as the world turned upside down, the Southern Time Band recorded their first album ‘Lost in Love No More,’ with limited rehearsal time and a meager budget. Southern Time Productions is now ready to begin preproduction on its premiere music and film product – the first season of ‘Dreamer’ – and the Southern Time Band to produce and perform the Dreamer series’ overture album.
FOR MORE INFORMATION AND ANY OR ALL MEDIA INQUIRIES AND A COPY OF THE DREAMER SERIES PITCH DECK, please email t@southerntime.ca.

LOGLINE

Dreamer, a passionate musician, reflects on his journey as an AIDS survivor confronting his own brokenness and alter ego in his search for love and belonging.

SYNOPSIS

Based on a true story.

Growing up in Western Canada, Dreamer’s desire for love and belonging drove him to make a series of bad decisions. On track to become a professional cellist, his world shattered before him with an HIV positive diagnosis in 1996.

We meet Dreamer in the palliative ward in 2009, lying in a hospital bed, waiting to die from AIDS.

It is through Dreamer’s musical mind that we explore the tragedy that brought him to the brink of death, and discover the hope for his future.

Every episode will take the viewer on a stunning musical journey through this fantastical story.

PLOT

Our story begins with Dreamer introducing himself in voiceover from a hospital bed. It is quickly revealed that Dreamer is in a palliative ward dying from AIDS. Reflecting on how he ended up on the brink of death, Dreamer begins to recall his youth.

Dreamer introduces us to a troubled young man, a young Dreamer, suffering abuse both at school and at home. Seeking refuge, Dreamer encounters T for the first time. The underlying musical score takes over, and we are caught between reality and a dream; a musical number.

T asserts himself as a spectator in Dreamer’s life, and the viewer is left contemplating who this mysterious figure could possibly represent, and what his motives might be.

Under the influence of T, Dreamer’s life seems to take a turn. In his senior year in high school, Dreamer finds freedom from his tormented existence as an incel when he starts dating his first girlfriend. He also begins making other friends at school, though he remains ungratified.

Just as Dreamer’s life begins to give him hope, he meets Chuck, a figure that looms over Dreamer like a dark shadow. Somehow simultaneously terrifying and alluring, a new force has begun to pull on Dreamer’s mind.

FUTURE SEASONS

Season 1:

We journey with Dreamer through his troubled youth and the broken relationships that lead to his HIV positive diagnosis in 1996.

Season 2 – 5:

Dreamer must face the reality of living as an HIV positive man. He explores communities suffering from the AIDS epidemic from around the world and begins to come to terms with the larger reality of global inequity and discovering how he might one day realize his dreams.

TONE

The series begins as a dark musical journey detailing how a young cellist acquired HIV.

Although based on a true story, this re-telling will explore the notions of reality and perception through music.

Every episode will contain a single musical composition that will play under the entire episode. The music will serve as a mechanism that carries the viewer through the story. There will also be moments where it will break through to the audience at strategic moments in full musical numbers.