THE DREAM & THE LIE

THE DREAM & THE LIE is Elena Dorfman’s debut feature documentary film, distinctly informed by her twenty-five year career as a photographer and visual artist. Throughout her career, Dorfman has explored marginalized communities and neglected landscapes through process and materiality. Prior to her landscape work, Dorfman was known for her intensive portrait series that combined beauty with atypical subject matter. Identity—social, cultural and environmental—is a root element of her work.

Dorfman’s deep ties to Albania have greatly affected her work. Her grandparents fled the small Balkan country before the Second World War, seeking opportunity in the United States. In 1945, Dictator Enver Hoxha sealed the borders for nearly 50 years, leaving Dorfman’s family cut off from those who were left behind. After the early deaths of all her Albanian family in America, the filmmaker was profoundly motivated to know the place they came from.

Dorfman began exploring and documenting Albania as soon as the former communist dictatorship fell in the early 90’s. Even while pursuing a career in fine art photography, she was drawn to the Albanian film archive, inspired by the trove of expertly crafted propaganda feature and documentary films rarely seen outside of the country. "The Dream & The Lie", is Dorfman's feature-length experimental film, comprised of more than 70 archival propaganda films, and completed in 2024.

A finalist for the BMW Prize, Paris Photo, Elena Dorfman’s photographs and video installations have been exhibited in both the U.S. and worldwide at venues, including the Fondazione Prada, Milan; Palazzo Strozzi, Florence; the Triennale di Milano, Milan; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Her work is held in numerous collections including the Denver Art Museum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Cincinnati Art Museum, Palm Springs Art Museum, Newcomb Art Museum of Tulane University, and Bass Art Museum. Her work is the subject of three monographs, “Empire Falling” (Damiani, 2013), “Fandomania: Characters & Cosplay” (Aperture, 2007), “Still Lovers” (Channel, 2005).

Dorfman lectures regularly at museums and universities. In the spring of 2025 she will teach a Masterclass for the Zavattini Prize students of the Scuola D’Arte Cinematografica, Rome. Her work has been included in several symposia, including, In the Uncanny Valley: Encounters in Arts, Media and Continental Philosophy (University for the Arts, Zurich, Switzerland) and Refugees Endure: WWII Displaced Persons versus Today and the Lessons Learned Conference (Tulane School of Law, New Orleans, LA). Dorfman’s work from “Still Lovers” was the focus of several documentary films and the inspiration for the feature film, “Lars and the Real Girl”.

"The Pleasure Park", her five-minute, three-screen film was exhibited in galleries and museums. Her short film, "Vincent", about a Mexican-American trans teenager, was commissioned and produced by Bad Robot Studios, Los Angeles.