Grand Prix Competition

MAD HOT BALLROOM



Marylin Agrelo

Country of production: USA
Year: 2005
Language: English
Mins: 110

Production company: Paramount Classics
Producers: Marylin Agrelo, Amy Sewell
Cinematography: Claudia Raschke-Robinson
Editing: Sabine Krayenbuhl
Music: Steven Lutvak, Joseph Baker

Source: Paramount Classics
5555 Melrose Ave., Chevalier 219
Hollywood, Ca 90038, USA
Tel: 323-956-4545
e-mail: Pantea-Ghaderi@paramount.com


Described by one critic as “A kind of Spellbound crossed with Strictly Ballroom,” Mad Hot Ballroom opened this year’s Slamdance Festival. It provides an insightful, inspiring and often hilarious look at a group of eleven-year old New York City public school kids who journey into the world of ballroom dancing. Along the way, they reveal themselves and their world as they compete in the final citywide competition. Told from their candid perspectives, these kids are transformed from reluctant participants to determined competitors, from typical urban kids to "ladies and gentlemen." The film focuses on several schools as their teams move from stage to stage in the competition, eventually focusing on the very best eleven-year-old ballroom dancers. The interviews with the students provide riveting insight into their lives growing up in the inner-city dealing with everything from drugs, single parenthood and crime, but provide the innocence that only children can provide. As these kids practice the rumba, tango, meringue, and swing they also speak about what they are looking for in a boyfriend/girlfriend, and in life in general.

Marylin Agrelo has over 15 years of experience producing independent films (most recent ”Smash the Kitty”, 2003), and producing and directing numerous commercial and fundraising projects. She is continuing work on the documentary “US & Them”, a chronicle of her divided family, shot in both the US and Cuba. Other documentary works include “The ORBIS Story”, a shot about an international humanitarian project. She lives in Brooklyn, NY with her partner, filmmaker Brian David Cange. Mad Hot Ballroom is her directorial debut.

SATURDAY, APRIL 2, 2005 AT 9.00 PM. / DOC FILMS
TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 2005 AT 8.30 PM. / CHOPIN THEATRE

MONDAY, APRIL 11, 2005 AT 9.00 PM. / GALLERY THEATRE