BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB

Ry Cooder caused an international sensation when he introduced the world to Cuba's son musicians with his 1997 CD Buena Vista Social Club. The CD, which met with extraordinary critical and popular success, went on to win a Grammy, and helped fuel America's current love affair with Latin music.

In 1999 Wim Wenders released his documentary of the same name, in which he profiles the legendary Buena Vista Social Club musicians, recording their experiences as they perform in Cuba and abroad, eventually appearing at New York's Carnegie Hall. Hailed as "splendid ... a sheer delight" (New York Post), "glowing-embers documentary " (Washington Post) and "more incisive introduction to the peculiar world of Buena Vista than any live performance could provide" (The New York Observer), the film helped immortalize both the music and its now-famous practitioners who had been living in near poverty, all but forgotten in their own country.