Cigar Lady Malecón Bleu & Yellow

A documentary filmmaker needs to sense (née predict) candid filmic moments, before they happen. This is vital to OneTank. Check out the way this lady approaches my bike, Bleu, and then kisses the audience. She was, and still is, a total stranger to me, who walked in and out of my life for half-a-minute. A total stranger. Totally candid. No words. No direction. Unscripted. And we bonded. As a shooter, I sensed she held magic. A minute before this scene unraveled, I rode by her a hundred metres back on Havana’s coastal rode, the Malecón. She caught my eye, with her big cigar and sassy saunter all dressed in yellow. So I zoomed ahead and parked in front of an amazing sculpture, just hoping to catch a glimpse of her walking by the scene. And oh, get a glimpse of the kid dancing in the background. This spontaneous :30 seconds is a documentarian’s wet dream.

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