A Documentary About Omara Portuondo Will Have Its World Premiere in New York

November 6, 2021

A documentary about the legendary Cuban singer Omara Portuondo will have its world premiere during the New York documentary festival, which will take place from November 10-28.

"Omara," directed by Hugo Pérez, a Cuban-born director based in New York, is a portrait of one of Cuba's greatest stars and will be presented on November 13 at the 12th edition of the DOC NYC Film Festival, according to a statement from Cinema Tropical, a nonprofit organization dedicated to presenting Latin American cinema in the U.S.

The feature film screening coincides with the 25th anniversary of the recording of the emblematic album "Buena Vista Social Club," in which she participated alongside old glories of Cuban music.

The documentary, produced by Dana Kuznetzkoff and Frida Torresblanco, offers unprecedented access to the legendary "bride of feeling," often described as the "Billie Holiday of Cuba," to tell for the first time on the big screen the story of her successful career, which spans more than seven decades.

At 90 years old, Cuba's diva has been a driving force in Afro-Cuban music for more than half a century.

In 2019, Portuondo was awarded the Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award for her contributions to Latin American and world music.

To film "Omara," the director followed the singer through Mexico City, Tokyo, New York, and Havana and interviewed world-renowned musicians such as Diego el Cigala, Roberto Fonseca, and Arturo O'Farrill, as a platform to narrate the story of her life.

The audience will learn about the circumstances of her birth into a biracial family, composed of an aristocratic Spanish mother and a father who was a baseball player (Bartolo Portuondo), as well as her trajectory to becoming a dancer at age 17 at the world-famous Tropicana cabaret.

By her mid-twenties, she was one of Cuba's most famous young stars as part of the female vocal group Cuarteto d'Aida, in continuous tours and as the opening act for Nat King Cole.

Portuondo was already an icon before being "rediscovered" by musician Ry Cooder, the driving force behind the film "Buena Vista Social Club."

Pérez will additionally have a second film at the festival, also in its world premiere, the documentary "Once Upon a Time in Uganda," co-directed with Cathryne Czubek, in which a brick maker becomes a celebrity in Uganda when he tries his luck directing action films.