Review: Filthy Dreamers. University of Central Florida

The documentary Filthy Dreamers opens with a scene that likely feels familiar to many viewers today: a young woman carries luggage to a car then eagerly departs for college, leaving parents to worry about what it means for her to be on her own for the first time. As the young woman steps out into this new period of independence, visual cues—her clothing, the old Ford car, the black and white film—quickly indicate we are not in the 2020s but the 1920s. An interviewee describes her real-life transition to college: “One of the people from our church…came and talked to my mother and said, ‘you know if you send her to this school she’s gonna learn to dance and play cards.’ And my mother said, ‘she already knows how to do all of that!’” These women—labelled “filthy dreamers” by religious activists because they sought a college education—are at the heart...