Lazaro is in his workshop about to start working on his Carnival stuff, while he tells us about his daily challenges.

For the protagonist to have a Salsa group as well as a Conga group, we felt it would complicate the story. Two different groups he’d have to share his time with, the going back and forth could be confusing, unnecessary and really difficult to justify.

The Poet is on his vegetable table and Lazaro shows up looking for some fruits to make juice for his boys. Both have a nice conversation about parenthood.

In this case the decision was really difficult, because it was a well shot verite scene, a charming interaction between the two characters. I thought it was a shoo in from the get go, but when putting the story together, it just wouldn't work. By the time it would be the turn for this scene, it would be too late for other plots of the story.

Lazaro goes to the grocery store to get chicken for his children.

We tried really hard to put this scene in the film, it was short and sweet, offering a glimpse into a Cuban market. Fortunately we had a similar scene coming later in the story which was much more meaningful.

Tiburon gathers his crew together to go to a gig. In his typical way, he makes sure everyone knows who the boss is.

My editor Halil Efrat and I, tried until the last second to make this one work as the intro. We just thought the one we ended up with, was a much better one. It just had more elements of the story to be revealed later.

Tiburon explains how the Cuban government uses the Conga traditions to galvanize the communities for political rallies. In this specific scene we witness a May Day parade.

This one was a good example of redundancy. All the themes covered in this short scene had been covered in other parts of the story.

This is a very short scene in which Tiburon brags about the good physical shape he is in and that's why he can hang with the youngsters.

We simply felt this scene would distract from the main story. The story needed to keep moving forward and this one just would slow down the pace.

The Poet introduces himself and his muse.

The decision was a little easier here. The Poet had a bold head on the scene we picked, thus rendering unusable all the dread-lock scenes we had. It just wasn't realistic for his hair to grow that long during the time frame the story takes place.

A very good archival scene filmed 20 years ago! The Poet and Lazaro sing one of the Poet’s witty chants.

If we were to shove this one in, It would have felt forced for sure. It was still worth the shot. Watch it and have fun!

A clip that went viral around the world in February 2022, doesn’t need much description.

Like every scene we have of the Poet where he’s wearing dreads, we really had to kill this one. The decision was about not violating the basic principle of continuity, the jump from bold head to dreads was impossible to justify in the timeframe of the story.

Tenten talks about the changing of the guard in Conga de Los Hoyos. In the process he reveals a couple of “secrets”

Tenten was such a fascinating character, unfortunately his story line wouldn't fit in the overall story.

A very touching scene in which we find out how close Tenten and his wife are.

Tenten was such a fascinating character, unfortunately his story line wouldn't fit in the overall story.

Everything with Tenten was dramatic. This is another nice scene in which Lazaro and Tenten interact.

Tenten was such a fascinating character, unfortunately his story line wouldn't fit in the overall story.

This is a very short clip in which Tata is putting his muse to work or vice versa.

Similar to Tenten, Tata story would have made the overall story even more complex and longer. In the challenging task of making this story a universal one, we had to cut his part entirely.

This one hurt!

Tenten and Tata, both in their late 70’s, are shown here watching the new generation carry on the traditions.

This is a very short sequence we thought about using as part of the resolution.

With both characters no longer in the film…we’re very happy we still found a place to share this.

Tata gets out early in the morning to run errands and talk about his obsession.

Similar to Tenten, Tata story would make the overall story even more complex and longer. In the challenging task of making this story a universal one, we head to entirely cut his part.