- Nacimiento
- Fallecimiento
- Lugar
Santiago Álvarez
Santiago Álvarez Román (March 8, 1919 – May 20, 1998) was a Cuban documentary filmmaker and a central figure in revolutionary Latin American cinema. After studying in the United States, he returned to Cuba in the mid-1940s, where he worked as a music archivist for television and became active in Communist Party circles. Following the Cuban Revolution, he was a founding member of the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC) and went on to direct its influential weekly Latin American Newsreel, shaping a new model of politically engaged documentary production.
Álvarez became internationally known for short films that combined found footage, photographs, animation, and music through rapid, associative editing—often described as “nervous montage.” His best-known works include Now! (1964), addressing racial discrimination in the United States; LBJ (1968), a satirical critique of U.S. imperialism; and 79 Springs (1969), a poetic tribute to Ho Chi Minh. In 1968, he collaborated with Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino on The Hour of the Furnaces, a landmark four-hour documentary on neocolonialism and political struggle in Latin America.
Across dozens of films, Álvarez documented music, culture, revolutionary movements, and authoritarian regimes throughout the Americas and beyond. His work influenced generations of political filmmakers, and he was later acknowledged by Jean-Luc Godard in Histoire(s) du cinéma. Álvarez died in Havana in 1998 from Parkinson’s disease and was buried in Colón Cemetery.
Como dirección
Historia de una Plaza
Brascuba
Biografía de un carnaval
La guerra necesaria
La marcha del pueblo combatiente
Mi hermano Fidel
El octubre de todos
Morir por la patria es vivir
Maputo meridiano novo
Luanda ya no es de San Pablo
El primer delegado
Abril de Vietnam en el año del gato
Los cuatro puentes
[Eröffnungsrede zur Retrospektive „Kubanischer Dokumentarfilm“] [Ausschnitt]
El milagro de la tierra morena
El tigre saltó y mató, pero morirá... morirá...
El nuevo tango
La hora de los cerdos
...Y el cielo fue tomado por asalto
De América soy hijo... y a ella me debo
Che
¿Cómo, por qué y para qué se asesina un general?
La estampida
El sueño del pongo
Piedra sobre piedra
Hanoi, Martes 13
79 primaveras
Noticiero ICAIC Latinoamericano No. 466: Celebración de la VI Serie Mundial de Béisbol Amateur en República Dominicana. Final Cuba-USA.
Despegue a las 18:00
LBJ
Como intérprete
El camino de Santiago: Periodismo, cine y revolución
Memória Cubana
Rocha Que Voa
Accelerated Under-Development: In the Idiom of Santiago Alvarez
Sal gorda
Claves para el Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano, 4: Memorias del cine cubano
El milagro de la tierra morena
Por la unidad hacia la victoria
Los Ojos de Santiago