The Untold Story of Bebo Valdés in the Documentary "Bebo" by Ricardo Bacallao

March 8, 2023

The German production 'Bebo', directed by Ricardo Bacallao, based in Berlin, features unpublished images of the Cuban musician and premieres at the Miami International Film Festival that begins next week.

Cuban musician Bebo Valdés, who died in 2013 at the age of 94, stars in the documentary 'Bebo', directed by Ricardo Bacallao, which premiered on March 7 during the Miami International Film Festival. Valdés emigrated to Sweden in 1960 and won nine Grammy Awards and Latin Grammys after three decades practically in anonymity.

Although the filmography of Bacalao Films, the production company of this filmmaker based in Berlin, has so far had a marked Cuban accent, it is one hundred percent German. "My company is registered here and pays taxes here," Bacallao says with some humor to DW from the German capital days before traveling to Miami. For him it is already quite an achievement to have received the support of ArtesMiami, co-producer of the film, and to be able to present the movie there.

'Bebo' premieres almost coinciding with the tenth anniversary of the pianist's death, which will occur on March 22 of this year, and contains unpublished images of Valdés, an important figure in Cuban music and jazz who left Cuba in 1960 and never returned. The film brings together the testimony of several of the pianist's children and grandchildren, some of them musicians as well, as well as friends such as saxophonist Paquito D'Rivera, who put Valdés back on the music scene.

"Bebo did everything in Sweden, from cleaning floors to playing in a piano bar," the filmmaker points out to Efe, who has set out to finally have Valdés' artistic value recognized in the Scandinavian country.

Bacallao made a first version of the documentary in 2020, to which he later incorporated new materials, such as the recordings, some unpublished, of the only television interview that was conducted with Valdés in Sweden, when he had already achieved international success especially thanks to the album "Lágrimas negras" with flamenco singer Diego El Cigala.

Bacallao has dedicated himself to documenting Cuban exile. In fact, he confesses to DW, "my energy is now focused on the documentary I just finished about six Cuban female artists from the New York area."