Her Tango

What seems like a lifetime ago, I cast Dan Israte in a commercial I was directing. We had done a few projects together over the years and had built one of those director/actor relationships that are not easy to come by. We most certainly did not always agree on things but we deeply trusted each other’s instincts and were always willing to try what the other person had in mind for a scene. In my opinion, collaboration at it’s best.

During a break from filming, Dan mentioned that he had just started taking Tango lessons and proposed making a movie about Tango together. My response was a polite and respectful, “Thanks for considering me but no thanks.” and made a conscious effort tot change the subject. “Listen there’s real potential here. Trust me, I’m asking you to do it your way.” Dan assured me. “I have absolutely no business making a dance movie.” I assured him.

But to his credit, Dan persisted. Every few months he’d bring up the possibility of making a “Tango Movie” and I finally surrendered. I promised him to at least research the possibility of doing it.

Sitting at home in front of a computer a few nights later it occurred to me how foolish I had been. In less than 5 minutes of research I realized that Tango was an ideal topic for independent cinema. The project had a built in, passionate community that was there for endless support but also as a potential global audience.

Cut to a few weeks later, and I am standing in a coffee shop begging my two year old son to stop crying while we wait for my latte. I happened to notice that the guy sitting closest to us was writing a screenplay. In an effort to get past the awkwardness of my son’s crying, I said, “Hey, is that a screenplay you’re writing?“ It turned out Matt Linter was writing a screenplay. By sheer coincidence he was also looking for a new project and to boot had recently been to Argentina specifically to learn the Tango. What were the chances of this kind of luck? That was the first moment I became aware of certain chance events completely outside of my control helping to guide this movie in the right direction. These kinds of make or break moments carried the film all the way through production.

Over and over again hard work and research attracted more and more talented people to the project. In the end the independent film community and the Tango community supported this film in a way that I never imagined was possible. Countless people made this film their entire life for days or even weeks on end. Every scene in this movie is also an underlying story about a group of people’s passion for filmmaking and Tango.

Taking the resources of locations that were offered to us as well as personal, we began to construct a story about a widower who begins to take Tango lessons. In the end we are thrilled with a narrative that very much resembles the story of how the movie was made. One filled with chance encounters, dreams that seem unattainable, and a passion to connect with other human beings in way that cannot be conveyed in words but only visual movement.