by Jas Keimig
It's a perilous time to make art in Seattle.
Not only have rents skyrocketed to apocalyptic levels, but venues are closing left and right as artists are hightailing it out of the city in search of greener, more affordable pastures. As a city once known for our alternative, cutting-edge art scene, the outlook on fostering that kind of community once again here in Seattle often feels bleak. But in that darkness is hope, which comes in the form of Fantasy A Gets a Mattress, a fever dream of a movie that understands the absurdity of what it means to be an artist in Seattle right now — ridiculous rent, cruel landlords, buses that hardly ever come on time.
At its center is our hero Fantasy A, a real-life Black autistic rapper also known as the Undisputed King of Hustle whom you may recognize from his flagrant and fun self-promoting posters plastered all around the city. Playing a fictionalized version of himself in the film, Fantasy A Gets a Mattress follows the rapper on an epic journey through Seattle searching for his big break — and a mattress to lay his head on at night.
It's a juicy, and profoundly sweaty, adventure as Fantasy A schleps around the city on foot after getting kicked out of his group home for coming home past curfew. Going from over-budget music video shoot to mopping sticky bar floors in exchange for stage time, Fantasy A's creative and financial struggles intersect with fellow working artist Asia Rose (Acacia Porter). On a circuit to relaunch her music career, Asia begs for money from certified rich creep Zander (Aaron Billingsley) and suffers the indignities of the gig economy. "If I had one day that went well, I'd make it my birthday and celebrate it every year," she sighs after getting handed her eviction notice.
Fantasy A Gets a Mattress takes the weird and bizarre cruelty that often governs artists' lives and makes it a cornerstone of the film — a conniving property manager Ramon (Logic Amen) plots to kick the low-income punks out of group housing to turn the space into a dojo (or, as he says, a "Ramojo"), Asia scratches the rashy back of a potential financial sponsor, Fantasy A works at a fantastically icky bar called Scabby's. All experiences working artists have had to go through proverbially or literally at some point or another.
The movie is also a high-key ode to Central and South Seattle with the Jose Rizal Bridge, the outside of Greg's Japanese Auto on Rainier, Chop Suey on Capitol Hill, and the rattling Seattle streetcar in the Chinatown-International District making their own cameo appearances. As both Fantasy A and Asia Rose hustle to make their aspirations reality against the skate parks, dilapidated buildings, and iconic sidewalks of the city, Fantasy A Gets a Mattress underlines that Seattle is still a city worthy of making art in.
Directed by David Norman Lewis and Noah Zoltan Sofian, Fantasy A Gets a Mattress grew out of the directors and producer Safiye Senturk's admiration for the prolific real-life rapper. For the script, they drew inspiration from the city itself but also from Fantasy A's two books: Life in the Eyes of an Autistic Person (his memoir) and Sage the Scholar (his surrealist novel). "While not directly based on his books, we wanted to get the feel of his books down," Senturk wrote in an email. "They have a great break-room daydream quality."
Filmed in both 2019 and 2022, Fantasy A Gets a Mattress embodies both the pre-COVID city and the pandemic era in what Senturk called a "period piece of the late 2010s." And since premiering back in April, Fantasy A Gets a Mattress picked up the Best Narrative Feature award at the Seattle Black Film Festival and is currently on a nearly sold out two-month run at The Beacon Cinema with future screenings planned at Northwest Film Forum, Grand Illusion, and Central Cinema in the fall. It's a film that surely cannot be missed.
Get tickets to Fantasy A Gets a Mattress at The Beacon Cinema on the Cinema's website and get tickets to its screening at Northwest Film Forum on NWFF's website.
Jas Keimig is a writer and critic based in Seattle. They previously worked on staff at The Stranger, covering visual art, film, music, and stickers. Their work has also appeared in Crosscut, South Seattle Emerald, i-D, Netflix, and The Ticket. They also co-write Unstreamable for Scarecrow Video, a column and screening series highlighting films you can't find on streaming services. They won a game show once.
📸 Featured Image: Seattle rapper Fantasy A takes over the silver screen in "Fantasy A Gets A Mattress." (Photo courtesy of Dr. Clean Productions.)
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