8th Annual Lady Filmmakers Festival Beverly Hills - Duende: The Red Shoes
A pastor's wife gets more than she bargained for when she meets her former gypsy flamenco dance teacher in the park for a secret private lesson.
Interview with Writer/Director Tina Love
Watch Duende: The Red Shoes on Film Festival Flix
Congratulations! Why are you making your film?
This short is an early scene from my feature script “The Red Shoes” a merging of my two big passions: film and flamenco. It is my unique way of sharing my love for flamenco and wanting to excite others about it. I want to ignite the imagination of an audience about making the first English language feature drama with flamenco dance in it. A riveting story about a pastor’s wife who risks everything to find her true self again as a flamenco dancer. I’m hoping someone will “get it” and see the market potential for this, as well as the potential spin off as a stage production.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch the film?
The short is an entertaining, feel-good movie with some mischief. Hopefully it’ll inspire you to get out there and do something you’ve secretly always wanted to do. Maybe you’ve held back because you think someone in your life won’t necessarily approve. Or maybe it’s beyond the parameters of the roles people are used to seeing you in, and that makes you nervous. The movie is about taking a chance.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
In this short Camille secretly meets with her former gypsy teacher in the park. She is struggles with the guilt of doing something that crosses a boundary of what is acceptable to herhusband, and in her mind, her church community. I am a former ballet/modern dancer turned flamenco dancer and Hans Christian Andersen’s fairytale the “The Red Shoes” always fascinated me. But I always disliked the morbid tone of that fairytale: passion for dancing turns to an obsession in which cutting off the girl’s feet is the only way to liberate her and bring her back to God. Her fixation on the red shoes distracts her from fulfilling her proper duties to the old widow who “saved her” and the red shoes alienate her from the good church folk.
So, I wanted to use my script to reshape the mythology - so that passion for dance - would be an exultation, a form of transcendence and union with the Divine. The sinful vainglorious lure of the red shoes has been transformed in my tale to the divine call of the red shoes to live a full life true to one’s unique expression. Camille’s conservative pastor husband represents the
point of view of Hans Christian Andersen (representing the repressive Danish “Jante
law” point of view). Sometimes in life we don’t feel free to do things we would like.
Social pressures and constraints box us in. Maybe it’s from religious or cultural
expectations (as the Danish “Jante law”), or perhaps a disapproving father or mother.
In seeking other's approval we may limit ourselves. We feel, “Oh I can’t do that,
that’s not for me.” Or maybe we do try to expand what feels possible for us, but we hide
because we don’t really have belief. Camille, the pastor's wife, gave up dance for God,
at her husband’s behest to raise a family. She changed her gypsy ways to appease her
worried disapproving family. She has no idea she is ultimately going to find God in her
dancing. She had been brainwashed that the right way to encounter God is church,
certainly not in pursuing mastery in something as seemingly vainglorious as dance. In
the world around her, one is supposed to surrender one’s vain passions for a the
greater good.
And yet my script doesn’t make church the enemy either. Today the
church has every kind of people and Camille’s quest stirs things up at her Lutheran
husband’s congregation. But for this short film, Camille’s red shoes are stirring up a
dormant desire to dance. As the scene unfolds on the bandshell stage in the park, a
Vietnam vet with a cane is watching this “theater” play out in front of him. (He is a
character adapted from Andersen’s fairytale). In my story, he is the “duende” man. He
begs outside the church and he is a mirror as to the goodness or evil within those who
interact with him. He happens to be in the park this day and like the character in
Andersen’s fairy tale, he is a catalyst for the shoes. And though the magic does
descend on Camille like some Holy Ghost, at the end we realize that the stakes might
be quite high for her to actually pursue this awakened desire.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development and
production?
My creative producer (David Bradstreet) and I wanted to find a scene from the
script that embodied the plot of the feature script and revealed Camille’s dilemma, but
also stood as a short on its own. We picked this one and I made some adaptations to
make it work as a short. We only had one day to shoot because I wanted to work with
the certain dancers; and, we could only offer gas money, a roundtrip discounted ticket to
the lead, pay permits and food. The goal was to reveal the allure, power, beauty and
vulnerability of flamenco as a backdrop for a female driven story that is unique. A
drama in which the soulful freedom-seeking rebellious nature of flamenco fits so well
with the message of the movie.
I am really excited because I just learned my feature script The Red Shoes was an
Official Finalist of The New York Screenplay Contest. An earlier draft was in the top
10% of submissions of the Academy Nicholl’s Contest and just missed the Quarterfinals
list. I don’t think a script is ever done! Things can always be better. If there is input that
helps me make it stronger, I embrace it, I work it in to enhance the vision. See what the flamenco dancers in the short had to say: https://vimeo.com/183445274
What type of feedback have you received so far?
People enjoy it. People have asked where they can learn flamenco, and if I teach.
Lots of people have told me they would love to see the feature. The resources I had to
make this short were very limited. It’s a quirky little film. It doesn’t try to be more than it
is. Most of the people in it are dancers (not actors). The two actors in it do stand out
as being better actors. I anticipated this. But I wanted to capture the drama of the
amazing dancers just as much. And this is the struggle I will have casting the feature.
Cast a dancer who can act, or cast an actor and use a dancer double. For the 1947
classic The Red Shoes they went with a professional dancer. In Black Swan they went
the other way around. I suppose it all depends on the budget.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
Well people have had some insights that I hadn’t even thought about. That’s
always very fun and interesting - what the audience brings to the movie. What they get
out of it often surprises me in a good way. I love that. Of course there will always be
differences of opinion when collaborating, but that is part of the refining process.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on
www.wearemovingstories.com?
I hope to gain exposure as a writer/director, as a new voice. Hopefully people will be entertained by it. Maybe they’ll even say, “Hey I want to try that!” Flamenco is very empowering, challenging and invigorating. I have seen it change lives.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors,
film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
Whoever will share the story of the flamenco dancing writer/ director (me) who wants to
make the feature about the pastor’s wife who finally decides to kick butt and go for the
dream buried in her heart. Yes, “Ladies kick butt!” That’s the name of the short’s
program it’s in at Lady Filmmakers Film Festival. (Screening Sat. Sept. 24th at 12:15)
We’re seeking producers who will read the script and look at the pitch package we
have put together. Ultimately, we hope to find the executive producer who loves
flamenco and realizes what a growing global passion it has become. Someone who will
nurture the vision and surround it with a great creative team.
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
For this short, I want it to spark a little magic in people and generate some new
appreciation for flamenco. I want it to inspire women to carve out some time to do
something they feel passion for. Men too, of course. Whoever can relate to reaching
for something that feels a little out of their comfort zone. And I hope someone will reach
out to read the script and support the greater vision, and perhaps reach out of their
comfort zone to take a chance on a first time female director at the level of budget this
would require. I have only written & directed mircro budget films.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation bout this
film?
What is duende?
What are the key creatives working on now?
Tina and David are seeking financing for the feature and would like to attach stars
in the roles of Camille and Peter, her husband. She and David scouted and made
great contacts in Albuquerque last year, when Duende screened at a festival there. The
film is set in Albuquerque (home of the National Institute of Flamenco and
Conservatory) and in Seville Spain. Tina scouted Seville, Spain last year for the key
locations which are featured in the script.
Interview: September 2016
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We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series and music video. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela
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Duende: The Red Shoes
A pastor's wife gets more than she bargained for when she meets her former gypsy flamenco dance teacher in the park for a secret private lesson.
Length: 9:45
Writer/Director: Tina Love
Producer: Tina Love, David Bradstreet
Director of Photography Tom Piozet
A flamenco dancer and writer/director of festival award winning films, Tina Love seeks to
combine her two passions directing her feature The Red Shoes.
David Bradstreet began in feature film development and produced over 60 hours of
cable documentary. With The Red Shoes, he is returning to feature film development.
Key Cast:
Kayla Lyall....Camille
Isabel Serrano....Lola
Fanny Ara......Natalia
Henry Brown....Duende Man
Manuel Gutierrez....choreographer, cajon player
Jose Cortes.... singer
Andres Vadin....guitarist