Santiago Álvarez
He studied in the United States but in the mid-1940s returned to Cuba, where he worked as a music archivist in a television station and participated in Communist Party activities.[1] After the Cuban Revolution he became a founding member of the Cuban Film Institute (ICAIC) and directed its weekly Latin American Newsreel.[2] One of his most famous works, the short Now (1964) about racial discrimination in the US, mixed news photographs and musical clips featuring singer/actress Lena Horne. Other well-known works included the anti-imperialist satire LBJ (1968) and 79 Springs (1969), a poetic tribute to Ho Chi Minh. In 1968, he collaborated with Octavio Getino and Fernando E. Solanas (members of Grupo Cine Liberación) on the four-hour documentary Hora de los hornos, about foreign imperialism in South America. Among the other subjects he explored in his films were the musical and cultural scene in Latin America and the dictatorships which gripped the region. The second chapter of French director Jean-Luc Godard's Histoire(s) du cinéma is dedicated to Álvarez, amongst others.[3] He died of Parkinson's disease in Havana on May 20, 1998 and was buried there in the Colon Cemetery.
The First Delegate
(Director)
The First Delegate
(Writer)
Hanoi, Tuesday 13th
(Director)
Now!
(Director)
79 Springs
(Director)
LBJ
(Director)
My Brother, Fidel
(Director)
The Forgotten War
(Director)
Muerte al invasor
(Editor)
The Servant's Dream
(Director)
Hasta la Victoria Siempre
(Director)
The Tiger Leaps and Kills, But It Will Die... It Will Die...
(Director)
The New Tango
(Director)
The New Tango
(Writer)
Cerro Pelado
(Director)
I Am a Son of America
(Director)
Piedra sobre piedra
(Director)
Cyclone
(Director)
¿Cómo, por qué y para qué se asesina un general?
(Director)
April in Vietnam in the Year of the Cat
(Director)
The Necessary War
(Director)
Noticiero ICAIC Latinoamericano No. 466: Celebration of the VI Amateur World Series in the Dominican Republic. Cuba-USA Final.
(Director)
Noticiero ICAIC Latinoamericano, No. 422
(Director)
The Servant's Dream
(Screenplay)
Noticiero ICAIC Latinoamericano
(Director)
Noticiero ICAIC Latinoamericano
(Script)
Muerte al invasor
(Director)
My Brother, Fidel
(Writer)
79 Springs
(Writer)
The Tiger Leaps and Kills, But It Will Die... It Will Die...
(Writer)
Take-Off at 18:00 Hours
(Director)
Take-Off at 18:00 Hours
(Writer)
El Tomate
(Producer)
Carnival
(Production Manager)
Hanoi, Tuesday 13th
(Writer)
The Stampede
(Director)
La hora de los cerdos
(Director)
Morir por la patria es vivir
(Director)
The Four Bridges
(Director)
And Heaven Was Taken by Storm
(Director)
Año 7 (Noticiero No. 290)
(Director)
Brascuba
(Director)
Brascuba
(Writer)
Crisis en el Caribe
(Director)
Crisis en el Caribe
(Producer)
Crisis en el Caribe
(Writer)
Solidaridad Cuba y Vietnam
(Director)
Solidaridad Cuba y Vietnam
(Writer)
Abril de Girón
(Director)
Abril de Girón
(Writer)
Luanda ya no es de San Pablo
(Director)
Luanda ya no es de San Pablo
(Writer)
Maputo meridiano novo
(Director)
Maputo meridiano novo
(Writer)
El octubre de todos
(Director)
El octubre de todos
(Writer)
Biografía de un carnaval
(Director)
Biografía de un carnaval
(Writer)
Historia de una Plaza
(Director)
Historia de una Plaza
(Writer)
[Opening speech for the retrospective “Cuban Documentary Film”] [excerpt]
(Director)