"Nosotros y el Jazz"

The Independent Video Group Images of the Caribbean, led by Cuban filmmaker Gloria Rolando, filmed "Nosotros y El Jazz" (The Jazz in Us) in 2004. This documentary highlights a chapter of cultural history shared by Afro-Cubans and African-Americans through a love of jazz music.

It is the story of a group of black Havana youth in the 1940s and 1950s who frequented jazz clubs, private houses, black society hang outs where they enjoyed what were then called "Jam Sessions," using the English term.

American films such as "Stormy Weather" and "Cabin in the Sky" inspired these young men and women to pursue music, dance, and theater as they discovered these arts as portrayed by African-American musicians and moviestars.

Now in their 60s and 70s, these Cuban jazz musicians and dancers, still maintain a special vitality. In "Nosotros y El Jazz", the memories of their youth and their longstanding relationships bring to the fore these magical connections between jazz and friendship.