Imperial Dreams

Imperial Dreams follows a twenty-one-year-old man named Bambi who returns to his old neighborhood of Watts in Los Angeles after serving a prison term. He wants to raise his young son, stay close to his family and write, but the poverty around him, the pull of his former gang life and a system that works against him all threaten those plans. Glenn Plummer plays his uncle Shrimp, and Keke Palmer, De'Aundre Bonds and Sufe Bradshaw also appear.

Malik Vitthal directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Ismet Prčić, working with producers Andrea Sperling, Jonathan Schwartz and Katherine Fairfax Wright. The film was made with support from the Sam Spiegel International Film Lab and Super Crispy Entertainment, and it runs eighty-six minutes. It is the first of two features Vitthal has directed, followed by Body Cam in 2020, and John Boyega takes the lead as Bambi.

Released in 2014, the drama draws a 7.4 out of 10 from thirteen critics' reviews. On IMDb it holds a 6.7 from roughly five thousand votes, while on TMDB it sits at 6.5 from about 175 votes. The critic score runs higher than either audience figure, and both audience samples are modest in size.