The new academic year for the Sac State Renaissance Society seminars began today. The mini-seminars and forums (fora??) don't begin until next week. This semester I selected a sort of Film Analysis seminar during which we'll watch a number of foreign films (the sort you usually only see at art theaters and having English subtitles) and then spend a little time discussing the film, the technique, the director, the subject, or why it was even chosen.
We saw our first film which was "Buena Vista Social Club". That sounded to me like a group of Disney movie buffs getting together to discuss the old days. Instead it was about a reunion of some Cuban music greats who get together to perform a couple of concerts in Amsterdam and then a final one at Carnegie Hall. The music, according to those who seemed to know, was classic Cuban at it's height just before Castro's takeover. But in addition to the music the film included some great scenes of Cuba, especially Havana, showing just what a marvelous, old-world city still exists even though their economy and the US embargo prevents any significant maintenance or restoration.
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