Dreams Beyond Tomorrow is a documentary created about women living with Stage IV metastatic breast cancer. Recently, we gathered for a private screening with the women who participated in the project and their loved ones.
What unfolded that afternoon felt less like an event and more like a sanctuary.
As the Executive Producer of Dreams Beyond Tomorrow documentary film, our founder Galina Semenova hosted a private screening of the documentary for the women who participated in the project and their closest loved ones. It was a milestone moment for the Womanity Portrait Foundation, bringing together eight women living with Stage IV breast cancer.
Working alongside filmmaker Erin Pederson, we set out to create a single storyline woven from the voices of five of these women. We wanted to capture the “radical present” — what happens when life brings you fully into the present moment because the future no longer feels abstract or endless.
The “Unspoken” Truth
After the screening, nobody seemed in a hurry to leave. People stayed, talked quietly, and connected with one another. Some of the women in the film were meeting for the first time in person.
Family members and friends shared a similar response throughout the afternoon: the film helped them better understand what their loved ones have been experiencing.
It became a space for conversations that are often hard to have in everyday life.
The most profound feedback from that afternoon didn’t come from the screen, but from the chairs in the audience.
It was a revelation. Often, those living with an illness protect the people they love by staying silent. They don’t want to cause worry, so they hide their deepest fears and realities. This film became a window into that reality. It allowed families to see the depth of the experience without the “filter” of protection that survivors often feel they must wear.
Dreams Beyond Tomorrow: From Stories to Dreams
While the screening was a powerful exploration of their internal journeys, the physical “Dreamscape” portraits remain under wraps. Last month was about witnessing the story; May 17 will be about witnessing the dream.
These large-scale portraits visualize the places these women still long to go and the experiences they still wish to have. They are proof that identity is never defined by a diagnosis—it is defined by the depth of our presence.
Join Us for the Public Premiere
More than anything, the gathering became a reminder that being witnessed matters. Not as patients. Not as symbols. But as human beings fully alive in the middle of uncertainty.
I invite you to join us on Sunday, May 17, for the full experience.
- When: Sunday, May 17 | 1:30 PM – 4:30 PM
- Where: Chula Vista Public Library | 365 F St, Chula Vista, CA 91910
- What: Artist Talk, Documentary Screening, and the “Dreamscapes” Gallery Reveal.
Let’s stop running, if only for an afternoon, and see one another clearly.