Synopsis

Ry Cooder travels to Havana to record veteran Cuban musicians whose music had been largely overlooked outside the island. The film follows the musicians in recording studios and around their homes before accompanying them to concerts in Amsterdam and New York. Their performance at Carnegie Hall becomes the emotional culmination of a musical revival that reconnects Cuba's pre-revolutionary traditions with a worldwide audience.

Factoids & Trivia

• The project began when Ry Cooder and producer Nick Gold planned to record West African musicians with Cuban performers in Havana. When the African musicians could not travel, Cuban bandleader Juan de Marcos Gonzalez helped assemble the veteran ensemble that became Buena Vista Social Club.

• The album was recorded in Havana in only six days. Its international success transformed a studio project into a major concert attraction and helped renew global interest in traditional Cuban music.

• Wim Wenders became interested in filming the musicians after working with Cooder on the soundtrack for The End of Violence. Cooder showed him recordings from the Havana sessions, prompting Wenders to join a later trip to Cuba.

• The documentary combines recording-session footage with intimate interviews filmed in Havana. It then expands in scale through concerts in Amsterdam and at Carnegie Hall, giving the film a clear progression from rediscovery to international recognition.

• Much of the material was shot on digital video, allowing the small crew to work unobtrusively around the musicians and their everyday surroundings.

• The Carnegie Hall concert took place on July 1, 1998. The musicians' appearance there marked an important United States breakthrough for performers who had spent much of their careers outside the international spotlight.

• The film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature and won the European Film Award for Best Documentary.

• In 2020, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry for its cultural, historical, and aesthetic significance.