Buena Vista Social Club square
Around the world since 1997, the Buena Vista Social Club LP has become practically synonymous with Cuban music. A triumph of engineering and performance, the Ry Cooder-led session featured Juan de Marcos González and a group of Havana musicians recording some of their city's most-beloved songs--possibly for the first time in their lives. Almost twenty years later, Cooder's trip to record in Havana and the material he brought back from behind the nation's arts embargo still rings vital, rich and funky in its own special way.
Now, Variety reports that the album and its associated musicians will be documented in a brand new documentary, which is due to begin filming in July. The BVSC have already been once immortalized on screen; a 1999 feature directed by auteur filmmaker Wim Wenders is essential viewing for fans the world over.
The new feature, however, will be directed by British Oscar-nominated documentarian Lucy Walker, and is being billed as a direct sequel to Wenders's work. The production is to be titled Buena Vista Social Club - Adios and will "focus on the five original band members on tour, and their personal and professional highs and lows since 1999." The film is due to be released in 2016.
"The original 'Buena Vista Social Club' movie introduced the world to a group of fantastically charming and talented musicians who have inspired the world with their stories, hearts and music," Walker told Indiewire. "Those are big shoes to fill and I am honored to follow in the footsteps of such a beloved, popular movie about such beloved, popular artists, and it’s especially fascinating during this important moment in Cuban history.”
The music of Buena Vista Social Club and its musicians is surely some of the finest material to come out of a nation whose musical tradition is one of the finest in the world. In hopes of communing with that tradition, giving and getting a little, Okayplayer and its CEO-in-chief Questlove recently visited Havana for a whirlwind trip. Watch a documentary mini-film on that trip and stay tuned for more news of Buena Vista Social Club - Adios.
