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Buena Vista Social Club’s Afterimage

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Aesthetics and the Revolutionary City

Part of the book series: Studies of the Americas ((STAM))

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Abstract

Kent begins this chapter by exploring the “Buena Vista Social Club phenomenon”—a term to describe the period that followed the success of the original Buena Vista Social Club recording (1997) and the release of Wim Wenders’s much-acclaimed documentary film in 1999. This chapter goes on to examine how the project’s success led to the development of a “Buena Vista aesthetic” that thereafter influenced foreign photographers and filmmakers’ portrayals of the city. In order to develop an understanding of how this aesthetic was established, the discussion incorporates a series of scene analyses and considers the way that these contributed to what Kent refers to in the chapter as Buena Vista’s “afterimage.”

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey, UK

    James Clifford Kent

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  1. James Clifford Kent
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Correspondence to James Clifford Kent .

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Kent, J.C. (2019). Buena Vista Social Club’s Afterimage. In: Aesthetics and the Revolutionary City. Studies of the Americas. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64030-3_6

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