1998

Director:
Wim Wenders

Director of Photography:
Jörg Widmer
Robby Müller

Editor:
Brian Johnson

Music:
Ry Cooder
Joaquim Cooder
Ibrahim Ferrer
Ruben Gonzáles
Eliades Ochoa
Omara Portuondo
Compay Segundo
Many other renowned
Cuban musicians

Producer:
Ulrich Felsberg

Production:
Road Movies Filmproduktion/Berlin

Length:
90 min. approx.

Format:
35mm Colour

Original Language:
English/Spanish

Ry Cooder has composed the musical score for several Wim Wenders films including Paris, Texas, and The End of Violence. Wenders now turns the camera on Cooder.

In 1996, Ry Cooder gathered together some of the greatest names from the history of Cuban music from the 30's, 40's and 50's to collaborate on the best selling and Grammy winning album The Buena Vista Social Club.

Inspired by these colorful characters and their extraordinary music, Wenders travels to Havana, Cuba to chronicle the cooperation and camaraderie between Ry Cooder and his veteran friends -- now known in Cuba as "Los Superablos (the Super-Grandfathers)" -- as well as their dazzling sellout concerts in Amsterdam and New York's Carnegie Hall in April and July 1998.

Wenders explains that he had no concept for the film other than trying "to do justice to this wonderful, warm, miraculous yet altogether real music."

"Music is a treasure hunt," says Cooder, "you dig and dig and sometimes you find something."

" In Cuba, the music flows like a river," continues Wenders, "I want to make a film that'll just float on this river -- not interfering with it, just drifting along."

Read related interviews:
- Interview with Borders Books