BACK TO LOS ZAFIROS FILM

PRODUCTION NOTES

Producer / director Lorenzo DeStefano and crew filmed over 60 hours of interviews and musical performances in Miami and Havana. Both surviving members of Los Zafiros, Miguel Cancio and Manuel Galbán, cooperated fully with this production. Many prominent Cuban musicians such as Buena Vista Social Club bassist ORLANDO "CACHAITO" LOPEZ, JUANA BACALLAO and OSCAR AGUIRRE DE FONTANA were filmed in performance and in interviews. Universally known Cuban musical personalities ROSITA FORNES, LOS PAPINES, and Cuban American salsa star MANOLIN (“El Medico de la Salsa”) also provide their perspectives. A number of Los Zafiros family members and friends in Havana and Miami generously shared their vibrant memories of the group as well as their own lives during “the edge of time,” the 1960's – the first decade of Communist rule in Cuba.

Well-known American musicologists TOM SCHANBEL and ALAN GEIK have also contributed interviews along with ARTURO GOMEZ of WDNA-FM Miami and Cuban-American musicians LUIS CONTE and HARRY “EL CHINO” KIM. Filmmaker HOWARD DRATCH (“Roots of Rhythm” – PBS, 1990) and NICK GOLD, executive producer of “The Buena Vista Social Club” album, each shared their views on how Los Zafiros fit into the larger traditions of Caribbean and World Music.