Director Matt Dillon (center) with co-producer Carlos Sosa (left) and DP Carlos Rossini.
The San Sebastian Film Festival has announced the world premiere of the documentary film The Great Fellove / El Gran Fellove by American actor and director Matt Dillon, that chronicles the musical career of Cuban scat singer and showman Francisco Fellove and the recording of his last album. The film, a U.S.-Mexico co-production, will be screened out of competition as part of the festival’s official selection taking place September 18 - 26.
Through a series of interviews, archival photos and videos, as well as the director’s own footage, the second feature film by Dillon (after his 2002 Cambodian-set drama City of Ghosts), recounts Fellove's life as a struggling musician in Cuba, his eventual success in Mexico, and the contagious love he had for music until the very end.
El Gran Fellove is co-produced by Dillon’s Pregon Films, Fisher Stevens’ Insurgent Media, Radical Media, Jonathan Gray and Mexican producers Carlos Sosa’s Viento del Norte Cine and Cristina Velasco’s Paloma Negra; DP Carlos Rossini (The Chambermaid) worked on the cinematography, and Armando Croda (I’m Leaving Now) and Victor Gallo on the editing.
“I think that it is very symbolic for an American actor to pay deep homage to Cuban music,” said co-producer Sosa quoted in Variety. “This will be a tribute to a group of musicians, mainly Fellove, who never had great media exposure but whose contribution to Latin music was highly significant.”
