I was working for Baltazar Tokman, an Argentinean filmmaker, on other non-cinematic video projects, when he asked me to assist him on a film he had already edited. "Do a fine-cut, exports and whatever is needed" was what he asked me to do. But, he also invited me to a private screening at the DAC (Directores Argentinos Cinematográficos), a kind of last round of criticism, comments, ideas. He told me about the movie, what he wanted to say.
When I saw the cut, I realized that the main story he wanted to tell was still missing. The movie went from one side to the other, judging the invisible friends, the imagination, the spirituality of his characters. For me, the important thing was something else: our constant search as human beings to find magic, imagination, also meaning in a life whose purpose is sometimes mysterious to some of us. After 3 days of watching the unused pre-selected material, I suggested to Baltazar to change the direction of the film, and he, being a bold filmmaker, agreed, since he was also unsure about the direction he had chosen.
I worked for a month to re-edit what was already there, shifting the focus from judging to expressing the truth of each character, reshaping the protagonist's relationship with his daughter, introducing two new characters ( the little blond toddler and the clairvoyant women), who in the end have the last word and a kind of conclusion to the protagonists' trouble.
When I think back, it was also quite bold of me to do this re-edit as I was a newbie to movie editing. But I just saw that the story was there.
The film was first screened at BAFICI 2020, Competencia Nacional, and it was nominated for the Best Editing Award given by EDA and SAE.
