Buena Vista Social Club (1999) Documentaries – Resources
Directed by Wim Wenders, this is perhaps the most famous Cuban music documentary ever made. It follows Ry Cooder's reunion of forgotten Cuban musical masters — son, bolero, and danzón veterans in their 70s and 80s — through recording sessions in Havana and performances in Amsterdam and New York.
Trailer
What It Covers
In 1996, American guitarist Ry Cooder traveled to Havana and brought together a group of veteran Cuban musicians who had been largely forgotten since the Revolution closed Cuba off from the world. Ibrahim Ferrer, Compay Segundo, Rubén González, Omara Portuondo, and others recorded an album that became a global phenomenon. Wenders' film documents the sessions and the subsequent concert tour, capturing the musicians' personalities as much as their playing.
The film shows Ry Cooder returning to Havana in early 1998 to record a solo album with Ibrahim Ferrer, and the concerts of the full line-up in Amsterdam (Royal Theatre Carré, April 1998) and at Carnegie Hall in New York (1 July 1998). For many of the musicians it was their first trip to the United States. Besides Ferrer you see Compay Segundo, Eliades Ochoa, Omara Portuondo, Rubén González, Orlando "Cachaíto" López, Manuel "Guajiro" Mirabal, Barbarito Torres, Pío Leyva and Manuel "Puntillita" Licea, among others. The songs include Chan Chan, Dos gardenias, El carretero and Candela. In 2020 the film was added to the US National Film Registry.
Why Dancers Should Watch It
The music these musicians play — son, danzón, bolero, guajira — is the deep foundation beneath everything in Cuban popular dance. Watching Rubén González play piano or Compay Segundo sing, you're hearing the rhythmic and harmonic vocabulary that casino and timba are built on. The film is also simply one of the most beautiful documents of musical mastery ever put on film — a reminder of what decades of living inside a tradition produces.