Buena Vista Social Club

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35mm

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Sunday, Jul 27
4:30

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Buena Vista Social Club

1999. 105 m. Wim Wenders. Janus Films. Germany/US. Spanish/English with subtitles. Rated G.

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Traveling with a small film crew, Wim Wenders accompanied his old friend Ry Cooder—who did the fantastic score for Paris, Texas—on a trip to Havana. Once there, Wenders immersed himself in the world of Cuban music. Over the course of several months, he observed and accompanied the musicians—first at home in Havana; weeks later, in April 1998, on their trip to Amsterdam for the first public performance of the Buena Vista Social Club (who had never played together outside a studio); then, in July 1998, to their triumphal concert at New York’s Carnegie Hall. “I thought, I’ll shoot a documentary,” Wenders has said, “and here we were, about to witness a fairy tale that no one could have imagined in this form.” The film became a cinematic sensation and an international success, garnering an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature.

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"The performers are virtuoso instrumentalists as well as gifted singers and composers, but they work together beautifully as a mutually respecting and loving ensemble, and their music is sad, cheerful, cheeky, funny, full of life, love and joy."
Philip French, The Guardian

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Panel Discussion with Crew of Buena Vista Social Club the Musical

Monday, Jul. 14 2025, 7:00

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Director Saheem Ali is a proud immigrant from Kenya, currently serving as the Associate Artistic Director/Resident Director of New York’s Public Theater. He received Tony, Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel nominations, as well as the Joe A. Callaway award for his direction of Fat Ham. He most recently directed and developed Buena Vista Social Club at the Atlantic Theater Company. His production of Merry Wives (Shakespeare in the Park) was recorded for PBS Great Performances and was the subject of the HBO documentary Reopening Night. Other productions include Goddess (Berkeley Rep), Nollywood Dreams (MCC), Romeo y Julieta, Shipwreck, and Richard II (radio plays), Fires in The Mirror (Signature Theater), The Rolling Stone (Lincoln Center Theater), Passage (Soho Rep), Sugar in Our Wounds (MTC), Tartuffe (Playmakers Rep), Where Storms Are Born (Williamstown) and Kill Move Paradise (National Black Theater). He is a Sir John Gielgud SDCF Fellow, a Shubert Fellow and the recipient of an Obie Award for Sustained Excellence in Directing.
Producer Orin Wolf is a Broadway and tour producer whose credits include The Band’s Visit (Tony Award), Fiddler on the Roof (Tony nomination), Beautiful – The Carole King Musical (Tony nomination), Orphans (Tony nomination), Once (Tony Award), That Championship Season and A View From the Bridge (Tony nomination).
Musician Marco Paguia is a music director, arranger, orchestrator, and pianist based in New York currently performing in Buena Vista Social Club at the Schoenfeld Theatre. He is the recipient of a 2025 Special Tony Award as a member of the band of Buena Vista Social Club, and is also Tony-nominated for his orchestrations. Marco won the 2024 Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk Awards for orchestrations for the Atlantic Theater production of Buena Vista Social Club. Marco is the Music Supervisor for Goddess, which premiered in NY at The Public Theater. He music directed the Broadway productions of Gutenberg! the Musical!, Girl From the North Country, Peter and the Starcatcher, and Everyday Rapture. Regional theater credits include Unknown Soldier at Arena Stage (co-orchestrations) and Goddess (Music director) at Berkeley Rep. Marco is the music director, pianist, and arranger for LaChanze and Lindsay Mendez. His orchestrations have been performed at Carnegie Hall, and Lincoln Center. Marco played on the soundtrack to Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story with the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel.