Interview with Rina Sherman, Director of Keep the Dance Alive

RS: I returned to Paris with some three hundred hours of footage, which is not a great deal given the length of my stay. At times, I would concentrate on photography or writing and at times I did not record anything but just followed life as it happened, and at yet other times, the intimacy of the moment was such that I could not film. I started editing the film upon my return to Paris in April 2004. I worked on it intermittently for three years. Some scenes fell into place immediately, others found their shape over time. The first cut was 2h15 long. Given that I lived through the experiences, filmed and edited them, it took time to distinguish between memory projected onto the image and what the uninitiated viewer would see in the image. This type of filmmaking is comparable to the process of writing; nobody can hold the pen in one’s place, it is a matter of maturation.