Cubans are resourceful people. We all know that. They can fix, use, and reuse stuff and make it work. That popular ingenuity is, of course, a result from the material scarcity in their environment, but it has also developed into a sort of subculture that they take pride in.
Taking those principles to the max, LA-based video director Benjamin de Castillo decided to make a whole music video on a strict Cuban budget. He used one dollar (that’s 25 Cuban pesos) to put together this visual collage to illustrate the instrumental version of Edgaro‘s “Vida.”
The original vocal track, featuring Osdalgia and extra trumpets provided by Julito Padrón, can be found in Gilles Peterson’s second volume of his impeccable Havana Cultura compilation series. But the instrumental, produced by Edgaro (of hip-hop duo Doble Filo fame), with all that superb MPC work, deserved a spotlight and this $1 video manages to do that and more.
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