The Dreamer Series: A Nearly 30-Year Journey of Resilience

The Dreamer series is the culmination of a decades-long vision, forged through perseverance and a drive to create change. It began in the spring of 1997 when T, shortly after testing HIV-positive at age 20, wrote his first song, ‘Southern Time.’ Facing an uncertain future, he resolved to make a difference through music and the raw, personal story of how he acquired HIV.

This mission was tested by a profound health crisis that led to a six-month hospital recovery. Yet, T’s resolve solidified. He continued to write—composing music, drafting screenplays, and relentlessly pursuing the dream that would become the ‘Dreamer’ series.

Building the Soundtrack to a Dream

In 2015, T moved back to Toronto with a clear goal: to assemble the world-class musicians needed to bring this rock musical to life. This search led to the formation of The Promise—the powerful band behind the cinematic sound of the Dreamer series.

Against all odds in 2020, amidst a global pandemic, The Promise recorded their debut album, ‘Lost in Love No More.’ They achieved this with limited time and a minimal budget, driven purely by passion and purpose.

The Next Chapter: Pre-Production Begins

Today, that 30-year journey is on the verge of its next milestone. Southern Time Productions is now preparing for pre-production on the first season of the Dreamer series. The next step is for The Promise to produce and perform the series’ highly anticipated overture album.

For more information, media inquiries, or to request the Dreamer Series pitch deck, please contact:
Email: t@southerntime.ca

LOGLINE

A dying musician, haunted by the AIDS crisis, is pulled into a cosmic odyssey by a mysterious guide from an advanced world. Using the transcendent music of his band, The Promise, the guide forces him to journey through his traumatic past and choose between surrender and reclaiming his shattered song.

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 in 2009 with Dreamer, a 33-year-old man who is gaunt, jaundiced, and dying from AIDS in a palliative care ward. Following a near-fatal suicide attempt, he exists in a liminal state, tethered to life by machines and haunted by the ghost of his vibrant, younger self.

As his body fails, Dreamer’s mind begins to fracture. In the silence between heartbeats, he is visited by T, a mysterious, otherworldly being who appears as a shimmering apparition. T asserts that he is not a hallucination but a guide from a harmonious world called Zyx. He reveals that Dreamer’s life force is intrinsically linked to music, and his “song” has been shattered by trauma. To survive, Dreamer must journey back through his memories and reclaim the broken pieces of his identity.

This triggers a non-linear narrative, weaving Dreamer’s present-day struggle in the hospital with vivid, often surreal, flashbacks to his youth. We see a sensitive, artistically gifted boy crushed by a hostile environment: bullied at school for being “different,” and suffocated at home by a violently disapproving father and a faith that taught him his very nature was sinful. His only solace was his music—the cello and piano serving as a sanctuary.

T’s presence is not new; he has been a spectral observer since Dreamer was 15, first appearing in a prophetic dream. In the past, T’s influence is subtle—a nudge towards courage, a flicker of hope. In the present, it is direct and urgent. As T guides Dreamer through key memories of first love, teenage rebellion, and fleeting moments of artistic triumph, a darker pattern emerges: every step toward hope was shadowed by a deeper wound.

The pilot culminates with the memory of Chuck, a charismatic and predatory cello teacher who spotted Dreamer’s raw talent. Chuck offered the mentorship Dreamer desperately craved, promising to sculpt him into a world-class artist and secure him a future in Germany. This encounter, which Dreamer once saw as his salvation, is revealed to be the pivotal trauma—the “deepest wound” that set him on the path to self-destruction. The viewer is left to question T’s true motives: Is he a benevolent guide helping Dreamer heal, or has he been leading him toward this painful revelation for his own inscrutable reasons?

The pilot is a symphony of memory and music, exploring the brutal cost of artistry and the fragile line between salvation and oblivion.

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 inequality and discovering how he might one day realize his dreams for himself and our world.

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.

Each episode will be built around a single, continuous musical composition, woven beneath the entire narrative, with silence used at key moments for maximum impact. The score will guide the audience through the story’s emotional arc, occasionally breaking through in full musical numbers at strategic points to heighten dramatic intensity.