Annie Silverstein is a Writer/Director based in San Marcos, Texas. Her feature film Bull premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in Un Certain Regard in 2019, and went on to win the top three awards at Deauville American Film Festival, and three Independent Spirit Awards nominations including the Best Male Lead, Best Cinematography, and the ‘Someone to Watch’ Award. Her documentary work (March Point, Noc na Tanečku/Night at the Dance) has screened on PBS Independent Lens and at festivals internationally. Most recently Annie co-directed the short documentary Breaking Silence, which won the SXSW 2023 Jury Award and Audience Award for Best Texas Short.

I met Steve Dean, the co-founder of Texas Dance Hall Preservation, and he started taking me around to different dance halls, sharing the history with me. After a trip to Sefcik Hall, and meeting Alice, the owner, I knew I wanted to focus a film on this very special place. I found it all very moving–the elderly folks who still went there each week to wax the floors and dance the polka; the joy they found in connecting with one another, their grit in making it up that steep staircase every Sunday, the graveyard next door where some of their spouses, whom they met at the dance hall, were buried. Despite many of them struggling with illness and death, there was so much life and joy within the walls. It was inspiring, and a reminder that at any age, we need each other, we need music, we need dance, we need celebration…

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