Bailando, post-game interview 💃

Bailando, post-game interview

We sat down with Michael .T after the release of Bailando online for some thoughts and reflections. For the record, we were there when he pressed the upload button. Here’s the post-game interview:

How do I feel?

I feel free. It’s been a long time coming because everyone kept asking me when we'll all see it, and it often became a question that rose at least once a week since we finished wrapping the shooting. I think it often led me to rush the process, but there were also days when I let patience get the best of me and let everyone we had for post do their amazing thing. It’s also a bittersweet feeling, too, because once it’s out, it’s out, and I think time will do its thing now, and hopefully I’m able to just continuously send the link out to people. I believe this is the longest I’ve ever withheld a film from the internet, but the mystery of it all was pretty cool, I guess.

Why’d you go on this journey? 

I wanted to make a film that represents me and who I am, and the things I saw every day growing up. I wanted to make a film that I can show my family too. Past films I’ve done, not to say that like I wouldn’t be able to show all my films to my family, it’s more so I wanted to have a film I can point them to. A film that feels familiar to them. I wanted to make something like that for them, for my friends, people in my city. I wanted to do it in the way I saw things rather than the way I saw them get made on television or at the movies. Feliciano also sold me on the idea of making a dirty dancing movie with the musical genre being bachata, and that was something I wanted to buy into. The journey took us to places I’ve never been before, and for that, I’ll be grateful for the fact that we both said yes and went on that journey to make the film what it ended up being. 

Are there any regrets? 

I wish I were able to get the film out sooner. We had so many people waiting for it, and that question lingered in my head forever. I just didn’t know what to really do as a filmmaker. All the proper ways of doing a release are scary and intimidating. I’m not really for content creation either. I’d rather make the film and have people watch that than go off and make attachments for it, but I get it, it’s all a part of the marketing of it all, really, but I do have this sense of fear that the “content” gets more shine than the film itself. It’s a lot of thoughts that play out in my head, really. The only regret I have is that, not able to put the film out sooner. 

What do I do now? 

I’ve been asking myself that same question lately. We recently finished this pro wrestling short film titled Dos Golpes, and I’m trying to tackle how I'm going to market this film. The trailer comes out first, and then we wait for festivals. In the meantime, all I could hope for is that we build hype around it and bring it out to theaters next year, with the hopes of an online release after we take it to all these incredible festivals and theaters. With Bailando, we looked into everything we could look for, we tried having convos about where to put it, how to put it out, and when to drop it, and ultimately we decided to put it out online when our tour finally came to an end.

It was a long tour, but I think if there’s anything I learned from that is that bringing a film to multiple spaces before sharing it with the world creates cool conversations and lets the film breathe a proper life in front of a live crowd and theater, the film festivals, these live screenings, this was the theatrical release of the film. It only took so long because I wanted everyone to watch together on a large screen with a giant sound system. That means a lot to me. I remember being at a screening once, and someone pulled me to the side and told me how much it meant for them to see a film like Bailando like that on a huge screen, and that’s why I love doing it that way before ever putting it out online. Our films deserve to be seen in the same spaces as any other movie that screens at a theater. The online release is great, but the shared community and experiencing that all together with a group of mutual interest is powerful. I’d hope with Dos Golpes we bring that same energy we brought with Bailando, and I’m hoping we get that film to the online audience sooner than we did with Bailando. 

Was it worth it? 

Yes. 

I’ll still be back later in December, really wanted to reflect on this film, should I do this with other films? What do you guys want to see? Let me know! Peace. - Michael .T