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July 28, 2005Child stars, director of 'Mad, Hot Ballroom' in TCAll attend film's showingBY GARRET ELLISONRecord-Eagle staff writer TRAVERSE CITY - After spending the last couple months touring the country promoting "Mad Hot Ballroom," Elsa Melys Ulelio and Kelvin Mu¤oz are still shaking their heads, wide-eyed. "I was like, that's me! I don't believe it," Mu¤oz said when he saw himself on the big screen for the first time. Mu¤oz and Ulelio are two of the children who star in the documentary, which follows a group of New York City children growing up and learning ballroom dancing as an elective at school. "Mad Hot Ballroom" kicked off the Traverse City Film Festival last night with a sold-out show at 8 p.m. and an extra showing at 10 p.m. The film was released May 13. Both children were attending the early screening, accompanied on the trip here by Mu¤oz's parents, Cecilio and Ana Taveras. Also on hand was director Marilyn Agrelo. The children were also expected to dance on stage at the State Theatre as part of the event. Cecilio said he never would have believed it all. "I see him in the movie and I'm like, 'Wow, that's my son,'" he said. Mu¤oz and Ulelio attend P.S. 115 in Washington Heights, one of three schools where producers chose to shoot. Ulelio dances the rumba in the film. "It wasn't tough," she said. "It was like one, two, three steps - it was easy." Outside the State Theatre, Kathryn Wade of West Bloomfield recognized Mu¤oz from the film. "I just saw it last week," she said. "I loved it, it was one of the best things I've seen lately - just fantastic." The movie marks the directorial feature debut of Agrelo, a 15-year veteran of independent films, who also accompanied the kids to the film festival. "To my surprise they called me from Paramount Classics to tell me Michael Moore wanted my film for this festival," she said. "It's really an honor to be the opening film for the inaugural festival." Misconceptions were targeted in her film, which she describes as "my little love poem to New York." "When I set out to make this film, I wanted to show what the neighborhoods of New York are really like," she said. "Not the places commonly associated with New York, like the Empire State Building, but the street vendors and the people." She said in New York - like in Traverse City - there are old neglected theaters which the people have risen up to preserve. "I think it's good for people to realize we're all really the same," she said. "That's why it makes me happy to bring this little New York story to Traverse City."
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