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DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT Produced & Directed by Lorenzo
DeStefano For those whose lives they briefly touched, Los Zafiros are legends. Proponents of “world music” before there was World Music, Los Zafiros combined the best of 50's American Doo-wop and R&B with Afro-Cuban rhythms, Son, Calypso, Bossa nova and a myriad of other Latin and Caribbean influences. Adored in their home country and by many Cuban Americans alike, the group was elevated to cult status in Eastern and Western Europe, where they toured in the mid-60's. Virtually unknown in America until the 1998 success of the Spanish-language feature film, "ZAFIROS - LOCURA AZUL" and the World Circuit Records release, "BOSSA CUBANA", the music of Los Zafiros has by now reached a wider global audience than ever heard them in their ten-year life span. Traveling and photographing in Cuba since 1993, my first exposure to the magical sounds of Los Zafiros came as a complete surprise seven years later. As I researched this story of the Beatles of 1960’s post-revolutionary Cuba, my appreciation deepened for the Cuban spirit in all its incarnations. Securing the blessing of the group's two surviving members, MIGUEL CANCIO and MANUEL GALBAN, realized my hopes for an on-camera reunion of the two in Havana ’s Cayo Hueso neighborhood, where Los Zafiros were born. Principal filming took place in Miami and Havana in November/December, 2001 and involved many Los Zafiros family members, friends and musical colleagues like ORLANDO “CACHAITO” LOPEZ of The Buena Vista Social Club along with many other Cuban and Cuban-American performers including OSCAR AGUIRRE DE FONTANA, MANOLIN, ROSITA FORNES and JUANA BACALLAO. This film was made to celebrate the brief life and complex times of a very special group. Their music is the soundtrack of a neglected historical period bordering the edge of time. Lorenzo DeStefano |