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BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB

Scene from BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB

Wenders longtime friend Ry Cooder often enthused to Wenders about his trip to Cuba and the album Buena Vista Social Club he had recorded there with some old Cuban musicians, some of whom had fallen into oblivion. The next time Cooder travelled to Cuba, Wenders accompanie d him with a small film crew, observed the musicians in the studio and traced th eir lives in Havana and also shot the only concerts given by the Buena Vista Social Club in Amsterdam and in, their triumphal success in the legendary Carnegie Hall.
The documentary, a purely German production has become the most successful Germa n movie world wide in 1999. Buena Vista Social Club was sold to more than 50 ter ritories in the world. In the UK Buena Vista Social Club has now become the most successful documentary of all time. The film won numerous awards such as the Bo gey Award in Germany for more than 1000 admissions per release print, Best Documentary and Audiences Awards in many countries all over the world and the European Film Academy Award for Best Documentary 1999.

Wim Wenders was born in Düsseldorf in 1945. He abandoned studies in Medicine and Philosophy to become a painter, but in Paris he discovered cinema instead. He attended film school in Munich from 1967-1970, and then started to direct and produce his own films. He has received numerous international awards, including the Golden Lion (1982), the Golden Palm (1984), the European Film Award (1988), and a Silver Bear (2000). He is a professor at the Hamburg Academy of Arts, and lives partly in America, partly in Berlin. A selection of his acclaimed films includes: THE GOALKEEPER'S FEAR OF THE PENALTY (1971), ALICE IN THE CITIES (1973), IN THE COURSE OF TIME (1976), THE AMERICAN FRIEND (1977), HAMMETT (1982), THE STATE OF THINGS (1982), PARIS, TEXAS (1984), WINGS OF DESIRE (1987), UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLD (1991), FARAWAY, SO CLOSE! (1993), LISBON STORY (1994), THE END OF VIOLENCE (1997), BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB (1998), THE MILLION DOLLAR HOTEL (2000), THE SOUL OF A MAN (2003), LAND OF PLENTY (2004), DON'T COME KNOCKING (2005), PALERMO SHOOTING (2008), and PINA (2011), among others.

Genre Music
Category Documentary
Year of Production 1999
Director Wim Wenders
Screenplay Wim Wenders
Director of Photography Jörg Widmer
Editor Brian Johnson
Music by World Circuit
Cast Omara Portuondo, Eliades Ochoa, Rubén González, Ibrahim Ferrer, Joaquim Cooder, Ry Cooder, Compay Segundo
Producer Ulrich Felsberg
Production Company Road Movies Filmproduktion/Berlin, in cooperation with ICAIC/Havana, in association with ARTE/Strasbourg, Kintop Pictures/Los Angeles
Length 101 min
Format 35 mm, color
Original Version Spanish/English
Subtitled Version English
Sound Technology Dolby SR
Festivals Berlin 1999 (out of competition), Sheffield 2012
German Distributor Senator Film Verleih/Berlin

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