Fito Páez documentary traces broken ribs, lost love and the musician’s beginnings in Rosario

For more than 20 years, Matías Gueilburt watched Fito Páez from the unusually close vantage point of a friend. Now he has turned that relationship into a documentary, Fito Páez: El mundo cabe en una canción, newly released on Netflix.

The film begins with Páez recording the album Novela at Abbey Road in London. From there, it follows him through cities connected to anniversary celebrations for albums that shaped his career, including Del 63, Circo Beat and El amor después del amor. His songs provide the route into his childhood, the start of his career and the losses that marked his life.

Gueilburt says the documentary deliberately avoids placing Páez on a pedestal. It presents the musician through contradictions, crises and obsessions, while also showing the effort behind his talent and the strength required to recover after falling. Páez appears angry, sad and alone, as well as successful and celebrated.

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Only you can do it, after so many years of friendship, blah blah blah.

The project began four or five years ago, after musician and friend Carlitos Vandera encouraged Gueilburt to make a film about Páez’s life. Gueilburt had already made music videos with him and filmed him repeatedly. Their earlier collaboration on the 2007 film ¿De quién es el portaligas? helped him consider what he wanted to tell from his own perspective.

He says his goal was honesty and freedom from restrictions. The film would show Páez as a friend, father and artist, rather than as the subject of a conventional homage. In its opening scene, Páez says documentaries lack mischief, a remark that sets the tone for a portrait willing to show his more complicated sides.

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What bothers me about documentaries is that they lack mischief.