Two years before his death in 1999, Paul Bowles welcomed first time filmmaker Owsley Brown into his life. Bowles was enthusiastic and supportive of Brown's idea to make a film about Bowles's relatively unknown life as a composer. They began working together to present Bowles's music in a manner which would allow the audience to experience it for themselves. Night Waltz is the happy result of Brown's long time fascination with the world famous expatriate writer.

More commonly known as the expatriate author of The Sheltering Sky, Paul Bowles actually first made his mark on the world as a composer. This documentary sets out to rediscover this forgotten master of 1930s American music. Shot in New York, Paris, and Tangiers, the film details his studies with Aaron Copland, and the time he missed a meeting with Sergei Prokofiev. Night Waltz: The Music of Paul Bowles also features interviews with William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, and Bowles himself.