Buena Vista Social Club (film)

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Buena Vista Social Club

Directed by	Wim Wenders
Produced by	Rosa Bosch, Ulrich Felsberg, Deepak Nayar
Written by	Wim Wenders
Starring	Luis Barzaga, Joachim Cooder, Ry Cooder, Juan de Marcos González, Julio Alberto Fernández, Ibrahim Ferrer, Carlos González, Rubén González, Salvador Repilado Labrada, Pío Leyva, Manuel 'Puntillita' Licea, Orlando 'Cachaíto' López, Benito Suárez Magana, Manuel 'Guajiro' Mirabal, Eliades Ochoa, Omara Portuondo, Julienne Oviedo Sánchez, Compay Segundo, Barbarito Torres, Alberto 'Virgilio' Valdés, Amadito Valdés, Lázaro Villa
Editing by	Monica Anderson Brian Johnson
Release date(s)	February 17, 1999 (Berlin International Film Festival)
Running time	105 min.
Language	English / Spanish
IMDb profile

Buena Vista Social Club (1999) is a documentary film by Wim Wenders about the music of Cuba.

The film documents how Ry Cooder, long-time friend of Wenders, brought together legendary Cuban musicians to record a CD of the same name, and to perform a concert in the USA. Although they are geographically close, travel between Cuba and the USA is restricted due to the political tension between the two countries, so many of the artists were travelling there for the first time. The film shows their reactions to this experience, as well as including footage of the resultant sell-out concert. It also includes touching interviews with each of the main performers.

It made the musicians, some of them already in their nineties, known to a world-wide audience, and some went on to release popular solo albums; these included Ibrahim Ferrer, Compay Segundo, Rubén González and Elíades Ochoa.

The film was nominated for an Academy Award for best documentary feature in 2000. It won as best documentary in the European Film Awards as well as many others.

There is also an album by the same name, which features studio versions of the music heard in the movie.