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From Japan to PHL, ‘My Little Dancing Shoes’ melts hearts
After a round of successful screenings in Japan, Filipinos finally enjoyed “My Little Dancing Shoes” during its Philippine premiere at the Cultural Center of the Philippines on Saturday.
“My Little Dancing Shoes” left Cinemalaya 2019 audience inspired and touched during its screening as part of the festival’s documentary film line up.
The documentary film by director Bryan Kristoffer Brazil followed the journey of three Cebuano kids as they chased their dream of becoming world-class dancesport athletes.
Since 2000, dancesport has been a hit in the island of Cebu and for many underprivileged Cebuano kids, the sport that requires competitive dancing was a way out of poverty.
This was the story Angela, Niño and Trixie. The three came from different social backgrounds with a common goal of improving the lives of their families through dancesport, believing that the craft will support them through college.
Through the intensive training to nerve-wracking competitions, the film captured the hard work and perseverance of the three as they beat all odds to survive the daily toils of life while pursuing the craft.
“This is not poverty porn but rather this is showcasing the unique abilities of the Filipino children and how they follow their dreams,” Brazil told this reporter in Filipino.
During the talkback, the 33-year-old Cebuano director said he was motivated to show the world the world-class talents and passion of the Filipino children.
“My motivation is to present different backgrounds of children, different backstories of the children,” he told the audience. “One of the happy moments is to see the kids win [the competitions]. It’s like we’ve become a part of their families.”
The film wanted to show that the Filipino children have a fighting chance through their innate gifts and talents, he said.
“Let’s help the children fight their battles. The message of the movie is to keep on fighting,” producer Antonio Lou Chua added.
From Cebu to Tokyo
The documentary film was a result of a successful collaboration between Brazil’s team of Filipino filmmakers and Japanese producers through Tokyo Docs.
To secure funding, Brazil’s team pitched the film to Tokyo Docs in 2017.
“My producer and I have been talking about producing this documentary about dancesports in Cebu since 2016 but we lacked funding,” he said.
Brazil then tried his luck by submitting a pitch to Tokyo Doc’s pitching forum on the last day of submission.
“When we flew to Japan to pitch the story, we saw how good the other stories were. There’s a story from Tibet, from Bangladesh. I was telling my team, ‘Let’s go home! Maybe they don’t like our story,’” he said in jest.
“We had no idea Tokyo Docs will pick our story!” he ecstatically shared.
“My Little Dancing Shoes” won Tokyo Doc’s “Colours of Asia 2018” award which gave them enough funding to produce the film which was three years in the making.
Funded by Japanese broadcaster NHK, the program enables Asian and Japanese filmmakers to collaborate on a production. Their product will then be distributed worldwide through Japanese broadcast companies.
Tokyo Doc’s chairperson Yukihiko Amagi, speaking at the screening, lauded the successful collaboration between the Filipino and Japanese filmmakers.
“I am truly happy that ‘My Little Dancing Shoes’ was just screened here for the first time in the Philippines,” Amagi said.
He added: “It’s a happy co-production because of the good relationship between the teams. There must be a careful balance between two point of views. If you push too much Japanese framework, it will kill the production.”
Brazil said his Manila Montage, Inc. team learned many things from their Japanese producer Akiko Tabakotani (Documentary Japan, Inc.), particularly the beauty of making things simple.
“The Japanese appreciates simple shots, simple cuts and simple colors,” he said.
Back to Cebu
“My Little Dancing Shoes” was screened in Japan during Tokyo Docs and it was also shown on television through Japanese broadcaster NHK.
Brazil said he looks forward to screening the film in Cebu where the story and inspiration came from.
Although the characters in the story and their families have seen the movie, he hopes more Cebuanos will appreciate it.
“We plan to join an international film festival in Cebu so we can screen it there,” Brazil told this reporter.
He recalled how his team flew to Cebu at least 30 times in the last three years to shoot the story.
“We are still in touch with Angel, Niño and Trixie and we plan to follow them on,” he shared.
The team vowed to share with the kids whatever monetary prize the film will receive.
“My Little Dancing Shoes” will have its Korean premiere during the EBS International Documentary Festival in Seoul, South Korea this August. —KG, GMA News
