Everybody has a version of a love story they’d rewrite: The text they should have sent. The flight they should have boarded. The person they should have fought harder for. It’s easy to romanticize the choices we’d make if we could go back again.
Writer-director Armani Ortiz built an entire movie around that fantasy.
Otra revolves around Javier, a young man killed in a car accident, who’s navigating the afterlife with the help of a spiritual guide played by Rome Flynn. Javier asks for the opportunity to return to Earth to reconnect with the one that got away.
The romantic musical, which made its world premiere at the American Black Film Festival in Miami, blends dance, fantasy, Latin culture, and inventive cinematography, earning Ortiz the festival’s Director Award for U.S. Narrative Feature, sponsored by Ally Financial.
“This is the first time I’ve won anything,” Ortiz humbly told the packed house of attendees at the award ceremony inside the New World Center in Miami, to which he received rapturous applause.
Knowing It’s Real
“I think it’s a selfish observation for us to feel people are gonna be in our lives forever,” Flynn mused, as he and Ortiz sat down with EBONY in the green room after the film’s screening.
With the notion that people come into your life for just a moment or season, Flynn stated, “But if you have somebody that is with you beyond that, I think that’s special.”
Pausing a moment to reflect on his words, Flynn added, “Nobody’s perfect. And so you have to find someone who accepts your flaws and then also you accept theirs, and you create that unity so that whatever happens in the world, which things will, you’ll be able to overcome them.”
Ortiz took it one step further, stating that the search for lasting love begins with yourself.
“You have to look inward first,” he exclaimed. “We want this person to be our knight in shining armor or our princess or what have you. But in reality, you’re the person who can only make yourself happy. And then from there, you can really start to complete one another.”
He suggested that it starts with being kind to yourself. “Really realize what you want as a person, and then you can understand what you’re willing to give to a partner.”
Dancing In the Streets
Not only does Otra fill the screen with musical montages and complete choreography, but it is also a single continuous shot throughout. Creating the film’s most ambitious sequences required equal parts imagination and engineering. One standout scene, featuring dancers climbing the walls and ceilings, was inspired by Gene Kelly’s classic moves.
“We built this huge gimbal, like this hamster wheel, and we nailed down all the furniture,” Ortiz explained. “We were always on the bottom floor, and the room would rotate. It was the most expensive shot of the whole entire film.”
For Flynn, the musical format worked because the performances never lost their emotional grounding.
“The movements, the choreography, my choices and how I spoke, the cadence of my voice, all those things lended itself to this sort of whimsical, abstract story that is deeply rooted in real human emotions.”
Believing In Second…and First Chances
While second chances come few and far between in real life, Otra explores the mythical ideal of going back and righting a wrong.
“I think everybody always wants a second chance, especially when it comes to love,” said Ortiz, summing up the film’s meaning.
“I think that’s the one thing humans get wrong all the time, not just some of us but all of us from all backgrounds. It was a great avenue that everyone can relate to the love that got away.”
For Flynn, he can’t wait for the chance for someone to see this film for the first time. “Its cover a lot of different topics, emotions, relationships—all those things,” he reflected.
“People will watch this film out of curiosity, because they love Latin culture, or maybe for reasons of their own,” he wished. “I think this movie has a way of finding its audience.”