Yeah, Sworn to the Drum is an excellent documentary focusing on the life and music of Francisco Aguabella, with lots of footage from the 70s, shots of Katherine Dunham, and of Julito Collazo and others playing in performances in the US. Routes of Rhythm, narrated by Harry Belafonte, has some great clips of rumba in Cuba, including 2 columbias from Matanzas. One is by Los Munequitos doing El Tocororo with El Goyo (Diaz), Jesus Alfonso, and Titi Espinosa playing a killer quinto, and with Diosdado and Barbarito Ramos (about 10 years old) dancing. The other one is by Columbia del Puerto. Other scenes of rumba in the street include one with Pupy Insua dancing columbia. Thomas, is the film you are talking about the one called “El Benny”?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFzG6ZCgTl4 I haven’t seen it yet, but have heard good things about it.
Probably the best documentary I have seen of Afrocuban drumming and culture is called “Quien Baila Aqui: La Rumba sin Lentejuelas” (sequins). It is an independent documentary, shot in Cuba and released in 1989, directed by Elio Ruiz. It features the original Yoruba Andabo, with Calixto Callaba, Pancho Quinto, Chori, Chan, Miguel Chappotin (father and son), Malanga el Rumbero, and a couple of others. The interviews of Miguel Chappotin (father) and Malanga el Rumbero (Rolando Rodriguez Oliva) are true documentations of oral history, and the interviews on the street of people’s opinions of Abakua are extremely illuminating. There are some great clips of rumba de cajones in a house in La Habana, a palo ceremony, and Pancho Quinto making a bata drum. The film is a real inside view of the rumba the way it really is in Cuba. Chori plays some of the best quinto cajon I have ever heard, con sabor y cadencia perfecta. Some of the songs in this film have been put on CD as Yoruba Andabo: Cajones Bullangueros.
I like this film even better than the other documentary Elio Ruiz directed, En el Pais de los Orichas, which also features Yoruba Andabo, but is government sponsored and is more commercialized. Quien Baila Aqui was done as an underground documentary, without government support, and wound up winning national film awards in Cuba and Puerto Rico in 1990. It is a real insider’s view documentary. It was only released on VHS tape, but Elio Ruiz is now living in NYC and he may be able to make copies available on DVD. He may already have an English subtitled version available. I don’t know the price, but you can email him directly at
elberdf@gmail.com