Why We Dance

• Genre: Documentary, feature film
• Initiated: June 2012
• Status: The chance meeting of Max Nguyen and Esther Garza in Boise, Idaho in the summer of 2012 initiated this proof of concept for a feature length film. This international film project seeks funding, additional chance meetings, and unexpected open doors.
• Synopsis: “In my travel across the U.S. and Mexico, Kenya, Tanzania, and South Africa, I have observed children finding joy in the most challenging of circumstances. With but a single set of clothes, often a day or more without food, children find reason to laugh, play, and on the dirt floor of their home or school—they dance.

  “It is not my intent to ignore the tragedy of slums, refugee camps, and poverty. Rather, there is another, too often overlooked story which runs in parallel to the breaking news. In Africa, the Middle East, in Central and South America, even right here in our own North American backyard there are children and young adults bolstering their self image and finding motivation to reach higher than the life they have been given.”This is the story of why we dance.” —kai