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BITTERSWEET
AGRIDULCE
Agridulce was filmed on location at the Academia de Bachata, which was recently featured in Romeo Santos’ HBO documentary King of Bachata.
Synopsis
In the Dominican town of Cabarete, bachata is a way of life far from the discos where it is danced the world over. With five years of filming, director Frank Pavich (Jodorowsky’s Dune, Cannes 2013) intimately captures the coming-of-age of a group of child musicians, showing how music guides their journey to self discovery.
Generations collide, and the children struggle for balance. Along the way, they’re mentored by Martires de Leon, a world-famous guitarist and teacher at a school devoted to the music that has become the Dominican Republic’s primary export
Director's note
Despite the global success of Bachata, there has been little coverage of the culture from which this music is born. Much like the Delta Blues, Bachata is more than just music; it is an expression of a complete way of life. The Film’s stories of small-town life in the Dominican Republic are windows onto a multifaceted world defined by deep contradictions.
The producer Benjamin de Menil's deep connection to the community allowed the film to enter the realities of its subjects on their own terms. Drawing on the immersive, observational traditions of cinéma vérité, Agridulce paints a story rather than tells it. Agridulce lives in the details of a living place, raindrops falling from a palm leaf, the swagger of a young man leaving a basketball game, under the voices of children narrating their own story.
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While the story is particular to Cabarete, it relates to our common humanity. By showing the significance of bachata in these children’s search for identity, Agridulce suggests the benefits that the music can bring to young lives everywhere.
