What 1972 documentary featured the Fania All-Stars at Manhattan's Cheetah nightclub?

The 1972 documentary featuring the Fania All-Stars at Manhattan’s Cheetah nightclub was Our Latin Thing. Directed by Leon Gast, the film captured the energy of New York’s emerging salsa scene.

Its central event was a concert organized by Fania Records at the Cheetah, a major West Side Manhattan club. The performers were leading Fania artists assembled as the Fania All-Stars, with Johnny Pacheco serving as musical director. The film mixed concert footage with scenes of Latino life in New York.

Our Latin Thing is important because it documented salsa not merely as a recording style, but as a social and urban movement shaped by Puerto Rican, Cuban, and other Caribbean communities. The Cheetah concert became a landmark moment in the genre’s development.

It is sometimes confused with Salsa, another film connected to Leon Gast and the Fania era. Our Latin Thing is the title specifically associated with the 1972 Cheetah documentary.