Cuba Feliz (2000) Documentaries – Resources
A quiet, intimate portrait of Cuba's musical life — following "El Gallo," an aging street musician, through homes, bars, and plazas across the country. Less about genre or history than about how music lives in Cuban people.
Complete documentary
What It Covers
Director Karim Dridi follows "El Gallo" (Miguel Del Morales, a 76-year-old singer-guitarist) and other musicians through everyday settings. The film captures informal music-making — people playing in their kitchens, on doorsteps, in small bars — showing music as inseparable from daily life rather than a performance event. It's one of the most honest portraits of Cuban musical culture ever filmed.
With only his guitar, El Gallo hitchhikes from Havana through Santiago de Cuba, Guantánamo, Camagüey and Trinidad, meeting old and new friends to sing with them in homes, bars, streets, courtyards and stairwells. Among those taking part are trumpeter Pepín Vaillant, Cándido Fabré, Alejandro Almenares and Los Cubanos Jubilados; in one scene the young rapper Juan jams with Vaillant. You hear everything from rap and improvised jazz to boleros and salsa. Dridi filmed with one handheld camera and a single microphone; the film (96 minutes) premiered in May 2000 in the Directors' Fortnight at Cannes.
Why Dancers Should Watch It
Alma Guillermoprieto writes in Dancing with Cuba about the way Cubans carry music in their bodies as a way of living rather than a learned technique. This film shows exactly that. Watching how casually these musicians drop into perfect rhythm in the most ordinary settings changes your understanding of what "Cuban musicality" actually means — and sets a standard for the quality of feeling you're trying to develop as a dancer.