Cuban-American director Hugo Pérez is set to premiere the documentary Omara on the life of iconic Cuban singer Omara Portuondo in the Sonic Cinema section at the 12th edition of DOC NYC. This year’s edition will take place in-person and online from November 11-18, 2021.
Omara, produced by Dana Kuznetzkoff and Frida Torresblanco, is an intimate portrayal of one of Cuba’s most adored performers. Omara offers unprecedented access to Omara Portuondo. It tells the story of Omara’s seven decades-long career for the first time. Although Wim Wenders’ acclaimed and popular documentary Buena Vista Social Club captured the moment when Omara Portuondo was “rediscovered” by the world, her story goes much deeper.
The documentary follows Omara Portuondo to Mexico City, Tokyo, New York, and Havana and features interviews with renowned musicians Diego El Cigala, Roberto Fonseca, and Arturo O’Farrill as a springboard to chronicle her life story. Audiences are brought along through the circumstances of her birth to an aristocratic Spanish mother and black baseball player father (Bartolo Portuondo) at a moment when that meant complete social ruin, to becoming a dancer at age 17 at the world-famous cabaret Tropicana.
By her mid-20s, Omara was one of Cuba’s most famous young stars as part of the all-female Cuarteto d’Aida, touring extensively and opening for Nat King Cole. Over the next several decades, she became a trailblazing single mother and advocate for Afro-Cuban women, already an icon before ever joining the highly successful Buena Vista Social Club.
DOC NYC Screenings:
Saturday, November 13, 4:30pm — IFC Center
Monday, November 15, 9:45pm — Cinépolis Chelsea
Sunday, November 14 – Sunday, November 28 — online (available only in the U.S.)
More about Omara Portuondo
(headline image: Omara Portuondo – Photo by Tomas Mina)
Author: World Music Central News Room
World music news from the editors at World Music Central