Product Description

From the streets of Havana to the back stairsand dressing rooms of a concert hall, into churches and smokey clubs, over the rooftops to a beach at sunsetas a lone couple dance (New York Times), this extraordinary and unique film treats us to a rare panorama of Cuban music and dance from the 1960's. Featuring legendary Cuban musicians as well as vibrant spontaneious performances, We Are the Music captures the mood and vitality of Cuba during its golden period.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #89559 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-04-22
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
• Formats: Black & White, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Original language: Spanish
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 66 minutes

Review
Glorious footage of some of Cuba's greatest musicians...incredibly rare and beautiful. --Film Society of Lincoln Center

Review
The history of cuban music - from a Busby Berkeleyan ballet of African dances to a beachside promenade. --Village Voice

Review
An impressionistic tapestry of musica cubano - top acts in their prime. --Variety

Customer Reviews

A mini-history of Cuban Music - but with a hum.
This black and white film from 1966 is a mini-history of Cuban music styles - at least those in place during the 1960s. The film "Buena Vista Social Club" has brought a resurgence in interest in the folk music and jazz of Cuba. Director and scriptwriter (though there is no actual script to speak of) Rogelio Paris shows us nearly all the non-Classical music styles of the country. Beginning with an Afro-Cuban folk dance company, we move through Latin jazz, percussive dance, piano jazz (by a guy who combines Louis Armstrong's and Fats Waller's personalities) and Salsa at a Carnival. Between the musical performances - both staged and impromptu - we are given scenes of the neighborhoods (of, I assume, Havana, though not identified) and people in their everyday life - whether doing laundry or playing on the beach.

Though this is an important film that captures the culture, time has not been kind to the print used and it has not been restored in any way. The image is not formatted for TV screens so you lose the original screen titles and there are plenty of scratches. Worse still is that an audible hum runs through most of the soundtrack and is particularly annoying when there is no music playing.

As a bonus feature there is a nice 24-color documentary on female singer Omara Portuondo (from "Buena Vista Social Club"), but again the print is worn with no attempt to clean it up. Thankfully there is no hum here.

Though the package says there are "Biographies & Filmographies", there are none. I, for one, would like to have known a bit more about the musicians featured in the film.

If you have an interest in Cuban culture and music, you will certainly get it here; just don't expect to learn about the musicians or hear anything resembling high fidelity.

Steve Ramm
"anything Phonographic"