Directed by José Sanchez-Montes Cuba / Mexico / Spain, 2003, video, 73 min. East Coast Premiere

One of the most fascinating names in Cuban music finally gets his due in this absorbing, intimate documentary. While Bola de Nieve - singer, songwriter, santero, diva - is hardly a household name outside his native Cuba, his timeless melodies have deeply influenced the way millions around the world have regarded that country's music; his fan base includes artists like Josephine Baker, Edith Piaf, and Pedro Almodóvar. Combining rare archival footage with present-day interviews with the people who knew him best, director José Sánchez-Montes gets to the core of what made the man known by many as Cuba's answer to Nat King Cole such an indelible and enigmatic figure. Rather than delving into his personal life, Sánchez-Montes instead opts to trace his eventful career, from his rise to fame in Mexico to his twilight years playing for Fidel Castro at a Havana nightclub. Much emphasis is made on how Bola took Afro-Cuban sounds into the mainstream through the mambo love songs that he immortalized in films from the 1950's alongside some of the biggest stars in Latin American cinema. And yet beneath the jovial, larger-than-life presence lay a profound melancholy that was encoded throughout his body of work, a quality that Sánchez-Montes respects by letting his music speak volumes about the sadness of a lifelong "bachelor" who sublimated his loneliness by perfecting his craft.
In Spanish with English subtitles.

Total running time: 73 min.
$12 non-members / $10 members

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