Curious Director Tammy Davis & Born to Dance Bound for TIFF

New Zealand is one of the world’s top locations for hip-hop. It’s also one of the world’s top spots for filmmaking. Those two truths have resulted in a film called Born to Dance, that has just won the privilege of screening at TIFF, the Toronto International Film Festival 2015.

Director of the film, Curious’ Tammy Davis, explained, “The film came about after two of the producers, Jill Mcnabb and Phil Bremner, decided to invest in a NZ dance film after our dance crews had been ripping up at the hip hop internationals. They funded the first draft of the script and five years later, here we are about to release our film.”

Born to Dance is the story of Tu Kaea, a young man from a poor Auckland suburb with a lot of ambition in his heart and a lot of learning about life to do. Tu finds out that success isn’t something handed out just because you turned up on the day.

Tu is played by champion hip hop dancer, Tia Maipi. His best friend, Benjy, is played by Stan Walker. Tu’s love interest, Sasha, is played by US actor and dancer, Kherington Payne (also in Fame). The film’s choreographer is by Parris Goebel, who has worked with Jennifer Lopez and the North American Cirque du Soleil dance troupe, as well as recently acting and co-choreographing in the fifth instalment of the blockbuster Step Up movie series. Its music supervisor/composer is Auckland hip-hop musician, P Money.

“Stan was cast because he knows the character of Benji. He's been there and has seen it all before. I wanted the audience to see a different side to him and I think we have achieved that. Oh and yes he's a huge draw card and the audience love him. Tia Maipi, who plays Tu, is an unknown. I had to cast a kid who could dance. Tia was one of Parris's dancers so it was a no brainer. It took a lot of convincing of the funders but they came around after intensive rehearsals to convince them that he could carry the film and the audience would empathise with him.

“Parris Geobel was amazing to collaborate with. Her creative integrity is second to none and I would be happy to do it all again as long as she's involved. And boy can she move,” Davis explained.

Walker’s character is the bloke Tu would have been had he lacked grit and gumption. "He [Benji] chooses a few things to get by during the day, obviously not good things to choose, but he has got to do what he has to do to survive. He is dumb, but he is also a little bit wise because he teaches people through his bad mistakes. I guess he is the 'big brother' [of the group], he is the clown as well... he hasn't got time to be so serious," he commented.

“When I took on this role, I was terrified of the dancing. I asked Parris to make it easy for me but she said no way. She told me it was going to be hard but I would get it. Did I pull it off?... You will have to go see it to find out!”

Did Tammy Davis pull it off? Being screened at TIFF says yes. “Just making the film was hard. Anyone who's been there will know. Hard question. For me as a film maker it means so much to be screening at Toronto and soon after to be screening for our home audience in NZ. I am so proud of all the cast and crew. The film belongs to the audience now and I hope you all go and see it.”

Being invited to TIFF tends to predict success. Born to Dance’s success will add to Curious’ great year of filmmaking. Curious film, IDA, won an Oscar and a BAFTA. Turbo Kid, the film entirely post-produced by Curious, won the Audience Award at SXSW.  And in June this year, Curious won its third Gold Lion at Cannes for Branded Content & Entertainment.