Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Interview: LIFE IS DANCE [Waco Independent Film Festival 2025 - Waco. Texas] - Part I

5 months ago

Producer/Co-Director Eirene Houston talks to Fest Track about timing, generations and finding the right characters in regards to her feature documentary "Life Is Dance" playing the "Crowd Pleasers" section of the 2025 Waco Independent Film Festival in Waco, Texas.

Transcript

00:00Could you talk about finding sort of

00:30the humanity in each one of them?

00:31Because you do that with Marta,

00:32you can really see it through her,

00:35and yet with some of the younger men and women,

00:38you see it as well.

00:39Yeah.

00:40Did you talk about casting?

00:40Because you had to gain trust, I would think.

00:42Yes, I mean, I've been going for a long time,

00:45since early 97.

00:46So, and then Ugo, who's the co-director,

00:52he was my, I was at the film school in Havana

00:56for teaching occasionally in the early 2000,

01:00yeah, 2000 to 2001, to 2005, something like that.

01:05And so I knew Cuba very well,

01:09I speak Spanish with a Cuban accent,

01:12and so when I love to dance,

01:18I'm not professional or anything like that,

01:20but I love to dance casino.

01:22Yeah.

01:22I find it, you know, and I love the Cuban music more than just the rhythms and the complexity

01:27of the rhythms, so that, and then I, as I say,

01:32Life is Dance, which was actually at the Miami Film Festival in 2013, I think,

01:36starring Carlos Acosta.

01:38Okay.

01:39And so that was, I'd been there through the whole, through that shooting in 2009.

01:47.

01:57.

01:59.

02:00and I like the music.

02:03That's for you.

02:05We dance, we're new, we're young.

02:08We can be in that.

02:10That's what I say.

02:13That competition, I'm the one who can dance.

02:17The most nervous of all of that people

02:20is this one who is here.

02:22I think we're going to be in the first place as always.

02:25I knew a lot about the culture

02:27and I said I love the dance myself.

02:29And when we were very aware

02:33when reggaeton started to come

02:35and the young ones kind of, this was a different dance.

02:38And I, you know, I didn't, you know,

02:41Ugo and I who were with my friend and the family

02:44that we went out with, we'd be sort of, hmm,

02:48I don't know what's going to happen here

02:50because the young ones were stopping learning

02:52the partner dancing, they were stopping doing...

02:54What time period was this around?

02:56This is quite, this is like 2011, 2010, you know, so...

03:00Which is sort of interesting

03:01because of the time, what was going on anyway.

03:03Yeah. Politically.

03:04I learned to see the casino when I was in the Polytechnic

03:13and I have a good memory of the casino and...

03:15I don't know, there's a little bit that I can get through my feet.

03:18No!

03:19No!

03:20No!

03:21No!

03:22No!

03:23No!

03:24No!

03:25No!

03:26No!

03:27It's something that I love.

03:28I work, I help my mom in my house

03:30and when I'm at 5.30 I'm crazy because I'm at the casino

03:32because I like to share with my dance friends.

03:34We enjoyed a lot, we're wrong, but we're there.

03:37And, you know, before Obama, there was like little businesses starting up

03:42and lots of different things happening

03:44and a lot of energy and stuff.

03:47And so then reggaeton was starting as well.

03:51And then, so they used to sometimes put reggaeton...

03:54I was out, you know, having a dancing casino or something,

03:57you'd be like, oh, here's the reggaeton.

03:59And then the kind of idea, we just wondered about what's going to happen

04:03if, you know, less people are dancing salsa

04:07and that beautiful kind of partner dancing.

04:29Yeah.

04:41Because there is something similar that happened to Glasgow a long time ago

04:44when people dance rock and roll.

04:46Yeah.

04:47And I'm sure in the States as well.

04:48Yeah.

04:49You know, everybody did partner dancing, rock and roll,

04:51all this kind of thing.

04:52Yeah.

04:53And then they stopped, stopping dancing that partner dancing in a way

04:57and dancing kind of like on your own more.

05:00Yeah.

05:01And losing that kind of the way that maybe men and women get together

05:05in a way like dance, you know, like dancing and having, you know,

05:08because like in Glasgow, you would go out and you meet people at the dance

05:12or something like that.

05:13But then it started to be, you weren't learning a dance.

05:16And I thought that's, this is happening to Cuba.

05:18Now people are dancing on their own and they're not,

05:20whereas the salsa and casino really brings people together.

05:23and they, you know, try lots of people together.

05:24If you are the second with us,

05:27then they were, first, we were home.

05:29After two days, I couldn't land out mais.

05:33I'm interacts with you holding up.

05:35Well, I am upset.

05:36I feel bad.

05:37I feel bad, I feel bad.

05:38I feel bad.

05:39I feel good.

05:40I feel good to be able to process of your career like a beat lady

05:42for your poorirement and happiness.

05:43You go to your table.

05:45We play on your table, you get your glasses.

05:46I know you skate around.

05:48You walk away.

05:50You play the church.

05:51especially ruede de casino which of course is a feature of the film and the and the and the

06:02importance to the young these young people not the very youngest but the young people

06:06to win the competition and and importance for that for for them in all the different

06:11areas and one of the fun for for us was going out and um finding our characters and like so

06:20we we took a while to find them we got to you know like so there would be a lovely place where um

06:26going to dance with with Marta and Felix you know the beautiful place that they are with the tree

06:30so we'd go we went there quite a few times and then we hung out we danced and we just still active

06:36yeah yeah it was it was still like um you know people would go there like Marta she'd go there

06:42and it was like a really important place for them um and and and Marta just seemed like the perfect

06:48person so we just picked on her and then Felix who who just likes to be debonair and just like

06:54so we were just picking the characters

06:56did that whole thing with them and their relationship happen all during that

07:13when they separate you know they seemed like they were that's what you that's the lovely thing

07:17about documentary you pick your characters and then you know they were dancing together then

07:21suddenly Felix didn't go to the dance and then he was going another dance and then he was trying to

07:25play this down and then Marta was going what happened and then being able to tell that kind of story and

07:31then while she was there um you know while she went was babysitting for her daughter

07:37she had talked about her husband her husband was there because and that kind of was funny you know

07:42how he he used to get when she actually went dancing again and she couldn't when she was younger but

07:47when they met they were dancing a lot so all these things that kind of happened on the way

07:51you

Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Interview: LIFE IS DANCE [Waco Independent Film Festival 2025 - Waco. Texas] - Part I

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