Renee Taylor Will Star in TANGO SHALOM at The Bklyn Film Festival This June

Academy Award nominee and Emmy Award winner Renée Taylor ("The Nanny") will be seen in the independent film TANGO SHALOM, directed by Gabriel Bologna, which will make its New York City debut as part of the Brklyn Film Festival. The film will be shown on Thursday, June 10th at 7 pm at the Windmill Studio (300 Kingsland Avenue, Brooklyn). The film will also be shown online during the festival, taking place from June 4th - 13th. For more information, visit the film festival's website at https://www.brooklynfilmfestival.org/film-detail?fid=2295.

In TANGO SHALOM, Moshe Yehuda (Jos Laniado), a Hasidic Rabbi and amateur Hora dancer, enters a televised Tango competition to save his Hebrew school from bankruptcy. There is only one problem: due to his orthodox religious beliefs, he is not allowed to touch a woman! At odds with his wife and five kids, the Grand Rabbi of his orthodox sect, and Moshe's entire Hasidic community in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, Moshe asks a Catholic priest, a Muslim imam, and a Sikh holy man for advice. Together, they hash out a plan to help Moshe dance in the Tango contest "without sacrificing his sacred beliefs," setting in motion a fun, passionate dance movie. Heart-pumping and heartwarming, TANGO SHALOM tests the bonds of family and community, and the bounds of tolerance and faith.

One dazzling dance step at a time, TANGO SHALOM is an inspiring and joyous celebration of Hasidic Jewish life. An interfaith milestone, this is the first film in history that was a joint collaboration with The Vatican, a Hasidic Synagogue, a Sikh Temple, and a Mosque, which promotes a timeless message of peace, tolerance, and understanding.

TANGO SHALOM has been a hit at film festivals this year, and has previously won the Jaipur Critics Best Film at the 2021 Jaipur International Film Festival, Best Comedy and Best Lead Actor (Jos Laniado) at the 2021 Montreal Independent Film Festival, the Best Independent Film at the 2021 Toronto Film Channel Festival, and the Special Jury Mention, Feature Fiction at the 2021 New Delhi Film Festival.

The cast of TANGO SHALOM includes the Laniado brothers, Jos (Milcho Manchevski's Bikini Moon), and Claudio (Mudbound); Judi Beecher (Only in Paris, Taken 3), Renée Taylor (Love is All There Is, Made For Each Other), Lainie Kazan (My Big Fat Greek Wedding, MBFGW 2) and Karina Smirnoff ("Dancing With the Stars").

TANGO SHALOM is directed by Gabriel Bologna. The screenwriters are the Laniado Brothers (Jos and Claudio) and Joseph Bologna. Produced by Laniado brothers (Jos and Claudio), Joseph Bologna, Gabriel Bologna, Zizi Bologna, Joel Zwick, Robert Meyer Burnett and Jordi Caballero. The cinematographer is Massimo Zeri. The editor is Robert Meyer Burnett. The choreographer is Jordi Caballero. The music is by Zizi Bologna and Zoe Tiganouria. The production design is Peri Grabin Leong.

The run time for TANGO SHALOM is 115 minutes.

Brooklyn Film Festival (BFF), a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, is an International, competitive festival. BFF mission is to provide a public forum in Brooklyn in order to advance public interest in films and the independent production of films. To draw worldwide attention to Brooklyn as a center for cinema. To encourage the rights of all Brooklyn residents to access and experience the power of independent filmmaking, and to promote artistic excellence and the creative freedom of artists without censure.

Born in The Bronx, New York, Renée Taylor made her professional stage debut at age 15 in a Purim Pageant at Madison Square Garden in 1948, and earned her Actors Equity card at age 19 for appearing in The Rehearsal at The President Theatre. Most recently, she toured the country with her acclaimed autobiographical comedy My Life On a Diet, which earned the United Solo Special Award for Outstanding Solo Show, as well as Lucille Lortel, Outer Critics Circle and Off-Broadway Alliance Award nominations for its sold out engagement Off-Broadway in 2018. My Life On a Diet is one of 22 plays, four films, and nine TV movies and series that she and Joseph Bologna created together. Renée and Joe appeared together on Broadway in their plays Lovers and Other Strangers (1968), It Had to Be You (1981), and If you ever leave me ... I'm going with you! (2001); and Off-Broadway in Bermuda Avenue Triangle (Promenade Theatre, 1997). For film, they received an Academy Award nomination for the 1970 film adaptation of Lovers and Other Strangers. The following year, they co-wrote and co-starred in Made for Each Other (Writers Guild of America Award nomination for Best Comedy). Renée and Joe co-directed, co-wrote, and co-starred in the 1989 film adaptation of It Had to Be You, and the 1996 film Love Is All There Is (which introduced a young Angelina Jolie). For television, the couple won Emmy Awards in 1973 for writing "Acts of Love and Other Comedies," and were nominated once again the following year for writing the TV movie "Paradise." They co-directed, co-wrote, and co-starred in the 1984 HBO movie "Bedrooms" (Writers Guild Award). Renée's other stage credits include William Gibson's Dinny and the Witches at the Cherry Lane Theatre; Elaine May's 1964 improvisational revue The Third Ear; Luv (directed by Mike Nichols); Agatha Sue, I Love You (directed by George Abbott); and Nora and Delia Ephron's Love, Loss, and What I Wore. Her many film credits also include: Jerry Lewis' The Errand Boy, Mel Brooks' The Producers, Elaine May's A New Leaf, Neil Simon's Last of the Red Hot Lovers, Lovesick, White Palace, Life During Wartime, Tyler Perry's Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor, and more recently, The Do-Over and How To Be a Latin Lover. She will soon be seen in the film Tango Shalom, directed by Gabriel Bologna. Known for her Emmy nominated role of Sylvia Fine in "The Nanny," Renée's other notable TV acting credits include "Daddy Dearest" and the groundbreaking HBO sitcom "Dream On" (she had the distinction of appearing on these three television shows simultaneously). More recently she has had recurring roles "How I Met Your Mother" and "Happily Divorced," as well as a role of Linda's mom in "Bob's Burgers." Renée was recently inducted into the Bronx Jewish Hall of Fame (Class of 2018) and holds an Honorary Doctorate from Hofstra University.

Before Gabriel Bologna's career as a writer/director, he was an accomplished actor for fifteen years, working with such film directors as Francis Ford Coppola and Mark Rydel. He was discovered by James Burrows while attending New York University Tisch and was flown out to Universal Studios to star in the ABC series, "The Marshall Chronicles", where he played loveable tough guy, Jonny Parmetko. Gabriel co-wrote an autobiographical comedy called "Love Is All There Is" (Samuel Goldwyn) with his parents, screen legends Renée Taylor and Joseph Bologna, starring Angelina Jolie. Bologna wrote and co-directed the film "The Elevator" for an HBO Original Release, starring himself, Martin Landau, Martin Sheen, and Richard Lewis. Gabriel directed a horror film called, "The Black Waters of Echo's Pond," starring Robert Patrick, Jimmy Duval, and Danielle Harris, which was released by Anchor Bay. In 2014, Gabriel directed a film adaptation of the play "African Gothic," by Reza De Wet, South Africa's most celebrated author. Written in 1985 at the height of censorship, this masterpiece was an instrumental weapon in the literary war that toppled Apartheid. The story, itself, centers around a weapon: the Sjombok, a long flesh-tearing whip, the ubiquitous symbol of Apartheid, and synonymous with the oppression by those who wielded it. The film won over a dozen film festival awards. Aside from studying at NYU Tisch, Gabriel was under the tutelage of auteur, John Frankenheimer, and opera impresario, Albert Innaurato. Gabriel was a professor of filmmaking for ten years at the UCLA Extension Entertainment Studies Department.

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