Rolling Stones premiere Cuba concert documentary in Toronto

By Alastair Sharp

TORONTO (Reuters) – Keith Richards returned to the Toronto International Film Festival for a second straight year on Friday, joining band mate Ronnie Wood at the premiere of a documentary of their recent Latin America tour that culminated in an historic Cuban concert.

The film ‘The Rolling Stones Olé Olé Olé! : A Trip Across Latin America’ goes behind the scenes with the veteran rock band as they play across the region for the first time in 10 years, chronicling their engagement with impassioned fans in a range of countries where their music was once banned or stifled.

“It’s strange, maybe that’s some of the attraction,” Richards said on the red carpet ahead of the screening. “I guess that’s what happens when you try to suppress something, certain things become obviously stronger.”

Directed by Paul Dugdale and shot throughout February and March, the film combines footage from concerts in Peru, Colombia, Brazil and elsewhere and interviews with band members, fans, and tour managers as they plan the free Cuba event.

At one point they are forced to reschedule the concert after U.S. President Barack Obama announced his own three-day visit after decades of hostility between the former Cold War foes.

The Stones formed in London in 1962, three years after Fidel Castro’s bearded rebels toppled a pro-American government.

“That’s a tough one,” Richards said when asked where the Stones might go next in the service of rock and roll diplomacy.

Richards was at the Toronto film festival last year to promote a film about his solo album ‘Crosseyed Heart’ that also studied the influence of blues, country and even reggae on his music.

(Reporting by Alastair Sharp; Editing by Robert Birsel)