Music Documentaries + Films -- S/D

Author Ned S8blette showed the "Omara" film doc tonight that has just been at movie festivals. He publicized the Vimeo showing vis his email list. It's a doc on Cuban singer Omara Portuondo, who came to fame for many via her role in the Buena Vista Social Club. After the screening on Vimeo, Ned had a Q&A with filmmaker Hugo Perez. A knowledgeable interesting guy. Great doc w/ archival footage, plus recent tour footage of her in NY, NJ, Cuba, Mexico City, South Korea . I didn't know she was the daughter of a white Cuban mother and a black Cuban father. Her mother got excommunicated from her well-to-do White family in 1927 for marrying her Dad. Dad was a baseball player and sang at home with Mom and the kids

Director hasn’t been able to get a company to purchase rights to film to distribute it to theaters, plus while some of the footage in it is “fair use”, other clips require payments to record companies that director can’t yet afford

Omara is a really well done film

‘Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg’ Filmmakers on Working With Her Son to Capture His Complicated Mother’s Life: ‘Marlon Encouraged Us to Go Deep and to Go Dark’

xpost Ned Sublette has done some incredible work for Afropop Worldwide:https://afropop.org/search-results?q=Ned+Sublette
And I really enjoyed his album Kiss You Down South--looks like it might be OOP, but still on spotify.

This looks like it could be interesting, I really wish this mania for cheap animation in music docs would stop tho, it doesn't work at all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9cQSENpysQ

I really wish this mania for cheap animation in music docs would stop tho

That ain't workin'
That's the way you do it
Get your money for nothin'
And your chicks for free

Billy was an odd duck and at almost every Boston gig I attended in the 90s. This should be a fascinating inside look into the whole scene.

I'm two episodes into Break it All: The History of Rock in Latin America and it's definitely worth checking out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWprHs86xao

Yeah, I watched Rompan Todo last year and really enjoyed it.

Even if you don't want to commit to the full six episodes, the first two are amazing in the amount of old footage uncovered. I had never heard of the Avandaro Festival before and certainly didn't know how important it was.

"Catching Fire" was good!