Santiago Álvarez
Biography
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.
Personal Details
Movies (49)
Éter
Sound (Sound)
2019
El camino de Santiago: Periodismo, cine y revolución
as Santiago Alvarez
2013
Memória Cubana
as Self (archive footage)
2010
Rocha Que Voa
as Self (voice)
2002
Accelerated Under-Development: In the Idiom of Santiago Alvarez
as Himself
1999
Historia de una Plaza
Director (Directing)
1989
Brascuba
Director (Directing)
1987
Coarse Salt
as Horacio
1984
Biografía de un carnaval
Director (Directing)
1983
The Necessary War
Director (Directing)
1980
My Brother, Fidel
Director (Directing)
1977
El octubre de todos
Writer (Writing)
1977
To Die for Your Country Is to Live Forever
Director (Directing)
1976
Luanda ya no es de San Pablo
Writer (Writing)
1976
Maputo meridiano novo
Director (Directing)
1976
The First Delegate
Director (Directing)
1975
April in Vietnam in the Year of the Cat
Director (Directing)
1975
[Opening speech for the retrospective “Cuban Documentary Film”] [excerpt]
Director (Directing)
1974
El milagro de la tierra morena
Director (Directing)
1974
The Four Bridges
Director (Directing)
1974
The New Tango
Writer (Writing)
1973
La hora de los cerdos
Director (Directing)
1973
The Tiger Leaps and Kills, But It Will Die... It Will Die...
Director (Directing)
1973
And Heaven Was Taken by Storm
Director (Directing)
1973
I Am a Son of America
Director (Directing)
1972
The Stampede
Director (Directing)
1971
¿Cómo, por qué y para qué se asesina un general?
Director (Directing)
1971
Piedra sobre piedra
Director (Directing)
1970
The Servant's Dream
Director (Directing)
1970
79 Springs
Director (Directing)
1969
Take-Off at 18:00 Hours
Writer (Writing)
1969
Hanoi, Tuesday 13th
Director (Directing)
1969
Noticiero ICAIC Latinoamericano No. 466: Celebration of the VI Amateur World Series in the Dominican Republic. Cuba-USA Final.
Director (Directing)
1969
Noticiero ICAIC Latinoamericano, No. 422
Director (Directing)
1968
LBJ
Director (Directing)
1968
The Forgotten War
Director (Directing)
1967
Hasta la Victoria Siempre
Director (Directing)
1967
Cerro Pelado
Director (Directing)
1966
Año 7 (Noticiero No. 290)
Director (Directing)
1966
Abril de Girón
Director (Directing)
1966
Now!
Director (Directing)
1965
Solidaridad Cuba y Vietnam
Writer (Writing)
1965
Cyclone
Director (Directing)
1964
Muerte al invasor
Editor (Editing)
1962
Crisis en el Caribe
Writer (Writing)
1962
Noticiero ICAIC Latinoamericano
Director (Directing)
1960
Carnival
Production Manager (Production)
1960
El Tomate
Producer (Production)
1959
Towards Unity and Victory
1937