Producer/Co-Director Eirene Houston talks to Fest Track about reaction, emotion and relativity to the audience in regards to her feature documentary "Life Is Dance" playing the "Crowd Pleasers" section of the 2025 Waco Independent Film Festival in Waco, Texas.
00:00I'm like, you know, quick, we need to get the reactions
00:29and all that and, you know, making sure we follow them
00:32and get them and that, you know, at that time where it's all kind of like
00:35and it's dark and it's like, you know, so that was and we've got
00:39some great shots there and especially goes Mel when you can just see
00:43all the pain in his face and arm and I was like, brilliant, chilly.
00:46It was like, so all these kind of things and Damaris is always so funny
00:50and laughing, just saying, don't film me and you're like, you know,
00:53and all that drama and we, of course, we didn't know that was going
00:57to happen, you know, so then a year later for the next competition,
01:03I'm like, they're not going to win, so, you know, so we're going to have
01:08to have an ending, so they were going to be on the TV or something,
01:11so we had all sort of an alternative ending when they didn't win
01:15the competition, so then when they did win, we're like, oh my God,
01:20brilliant and they just went crazy.
01:21Was the ultimate shot within like that two, three-year period or was it?
01:25We shot over a year and a half, but I would come and go and come
01:29and go and come and go, so.
01:30Oh.
01:31Oh.
01:32So.
01:33I.
01:34Be.
01:35I.
01:36Oh.
01:37I.
01:38Me gustaría que la gente le pense, no bailarín y lo único que sabe esouvert.
01:42Me gustaría que también se hubiera, no es bailarín para hacer una escuela, bailarca
01:47cima.
01:48Eso es todo lo que le enseñan a la escuela.
01:51Oh.
01:52Soy.
01:53Benito.
01:54Oh.
01:55Ay.
01:56Benito.
01:57ambiente la sopa canina.
02:00Where did your love of Havana come from?
02:19I mean, why were you drawn there?
02:22Just, I always wanted to go, you know, it's like just something that I always wanted to go to Cuba.
02:28It's like, it's like, yeah, I grew up in Glasgow, but you know, the 60s and yeah, and Glasgow and it's like, yeah, Cuba's pretty far away.
02:38Yeah, but I suppose it represents something, you know, a kind of, you know, um, yeah, and it's just I was a big fan of the culture and the music and, and just always wanted to go.
02:50And then I had an idea for a film when they came out of film school in 97 and I got a little bit of money from the British Film Institute, just a little enough to go there in 97.
03:02Um, cause, uh, you know, tourism would be starting to happen and opening up and, and Glasgow has a kind of history of, of that kind of solidarity, you know, and the shipyards and the, you know, um, so, so I just, I had an idea for two sisters.
03:21I mean, Day of the Flowers, it, um, I mean, it didn't do as well as, I mean, it's a lovely film.
03:27I'm very proud of it, but, you know, I still, sometimes I think I'd like to do a double bill with, with this one and that, you know.
03:34Day of the Arts
03:52In my time there were places where I could go, where I could go. And I thought, well, this one, then, and now, you know, you don't have to divert yourself, like I was fun in my time.
04:01So, the first time I went, it felt very, I think that's quite a, I kind of got a Latin, I don't know, I just get on with people from that kind of, I think Glaswegians have got this kind of very, they're very old.
04:31Very open, very friendly.
04:32Did you learn Spanish from when you got down there?
04:34Yeah, I learned a tiny bit before I went, but I really couldn't speak, I couldn't speak Spanish, I couldn't dance.
04:40And then, and then, and now I can do both.
04:42Yeah.
04:43But, um, I always say that, that Cuba taught me through things very quickly.
04:47It's like, um, how to live in the moment, and how to dance salsa, how to dance, because, you know, so that's true, and they're very immediate things.
04:56Yeah.
04:56And I think what I like about it is that, that, you know, you always know you're alive, you always know you're alive.
05:04And I think it's very important, it's that kind of, um, something, you know, there's, you know, there might be something difficult happening, but then you'll turn the corner and there'll be something really joyful.
05:15There, there's a bunch of friends.
05:19People, we all are being dressed, for the pretty, the clothes, the clothes.
05:22Because if we had in that time...
05:23There's a lot of clothes.
05:24There's a lot of clothes.
05:25There's a lot of clothes, clothes and panties, and do they give up?
05:26That's the thing very much.
05:27They give up, right?
05:28No, that's what I like.
05:29A lot of them?
05:30No, because they give up.
05:31A lot of them.
05:31I don't know, which I tell them.
05:32Yeah, but I tell them all, like, what do you do?
05:33Okay, let me tell them.
05:35Look, I tell them a piece.
05:37Can you give up an item?
05:39Yeah, I tell them something.
05:39What do you do?
05:40Can you give up an item?
05:41Yeah.
05:42You know, in Glasgow it's a bit like that, you know, you've got your hard times and all
06:11that, but you're, you know.
06:14You always persevere.
06:15Yeah, and you just have a kind of belief in community, I mean, and that's what Film Festival
06:21does, doesn't it?
06:22It's like you bring people together collectively and you just look out for each other.
06:28And that's very much so.
06:31So it seemed when I got there, it seemed very familiar to me, actually, coming from Glasgow,
06:37that kind of, you know, in Glasgow, if you're in a taxi, you chat to people, you, you know,
06:42you chat to people, you, you, you know, if you're in a queue, you chat, there's always
06:46that, you go in a shop and you say, hi, how you doing, you know, all that kind of banter.
06:50And there's a lot of joking going on.
06:52It's the same.
06:55Si cogieron el segundo, el primero no nosotras, pero bueno.
07:01Hace dos domingos que no puedo ir a bailar, estoy aquí ostinada.
07:04Bueno, estoy mal, mal, mal.
07:06No, no, no.
07:07Hace dos domingos que no puedo ir a bailarín.
07:11Y no te dejen por tener tus papeles.
07:14Bailaba, miraba tu pasillo.
07:25And so for me, even with my kind of limited Spanish, I was able to just tell a few jokes.
07:32If I can, if I can make people laugh, I, you know, that makes me happy.
07:35And that's something, and, you know, there's a lot of joking, like, in fact, like, it's
07:40very similar to Glasgow.
07:41And then that.
07:42Yeah.
07:42So you've got that just, you know, take the piss and joking.
07:45So they get my sense of humor.
07:47So that's very attractive.
07:48It was like, I'm always like, you know, and they go, you know, and they go, no, it's
07:53like the, no, it's very, and, and they're, you're very funny.
07:58There's a lot of laughter.
07:59So there's, there's all that kind of sense of fun.
08:16There's a lot of joy.
08:17It's, and I, I would say it's the capacity for joy, the capacity for joy.
08:25And that is, it's like a capacity.
08:27And I love that kind of a capacity for joy.
08:30So, so, you know, when I feel I'm lucky and that a lot of things, it doesn't take much
08:35to bring me joy.
08:37Yeah.
08:37And I think that, that's what, that's what was familiar.
08:40Glaswegians are a bit like that and Havana and Havana and Glasgow are twin cities.
08:45Oh, I didn't know.
08:46Yeah.
08:46So there's a kind of, and so there's that kind of, there is that kind of similarity and
08:53that capacity for, for to find joy in the smallest of things.
