BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB

Guitarist and longtime Wim Wenders collaborator Ry Cooder struck gold when he helped organize The Buena Vista Social Club, an enormously popular compilation of Cuban ballads released in 1997. Two years later, Cooder returned to record the solo album of singer and Social Club member Ibrahim Ferrer, and this time Wenders and crew were in tow. The resulting "musicumentary" cleverly mixes footage from various recording sessions and interviews with live performances in Amsterdam and New York City's Carnegie Hall.

While we don't learn a lot about the collaborative process between the extremely reserved Cooder and the Cubans (Ferrer, pianist Ruben Gonzalez and songstress Omara Portuondo are singled out for special attention), many of the gifted musicians on whom Wenders focuses his camera freely offer personal stories as well their own thoughts on contemporary Cuba. Many of them continue to live in extremely humble surroundings — 72-year-old Ferrer used to shine shoes before the album's success — and Wenders' camera captures Havana's crumbling architecture and battered '50s-era American cars. But the music and emotion behind it are transcendent, and one wonders whether this could be linked to the fact that for nearly 40 years, these musicians have lived in isolation from the world at large, immersed in their art and far from capitalism. Save for a stray shot of pro-Revolution grafitti, Wenders refrains from any political commentary, and Cooder pauses only to speculate on how you never know what's going to please the public. How about plain old good music? leave a comment --Sandra Contreras

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