Santiago Álvarez Román (March 18, 1919 – May 20, 1998) was a
Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
n filmmaker. He wrote and directed many
documentaries
A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in term ...
about Cuban and
American culture. His "nervous montage" technique of using "found materials," such as Hollywood movie clips, cartoons, and photographs,
is considered a precursor to the modern
video clip.
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
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...
activities.
After the
Cuban Revolution
The Cuban Revolution ( es, Revolución Cubana) was carried out after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état which placed Fulgencio Batista as head of state and the failed mass strike in opposition that followed. After failing to contest Batista in co ...
he became a founding member of the Cuban Film Institute (
ICAIC) and directed its weekly ''Latin American Newsreel''.
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
(: ; born ; 19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969), commonly known as (' Uncle Hồ'), also known as ('President Hồ'), (' Old father of the people') and by other aliases, was a Vietnamese revolutionary and statesman. He served as P ...
.
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
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...
.
Among the other subjects he explored in his films were the musical and cultural scene in
Latin America
Latin America or
* french: Amérique Latine, link=no
* ht, Amerik Latin, link=no
* pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...
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.
[. Retrieved 2011-07-11.]
He died of
Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...
in
Havana
Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center. on May 20, 1998, and was buried there in the
Colon Cemetery.
Filmography
* ''Ciclon'' (Hurricane) (1963)
* ''Segunda Declaracion de la Habana'' (1964)
* ''Now'' (1965)
* ''La Guerra Olvidada'' (Laos: A Forgotten War) (1966)
* ''Cerro Pelado'' (1966)
* ''Hanoi, Martes 13'' (1967)
* ''79 Primaveras'' (1969)
* ''El Sueno del Pongo'' (The Servant's Dream) (1970)
* ''De America soy hijo y a ella de debo'' (Born of the Americas) (1972)
* ''Y el cielo fue tomado por asulto'' (And heaven was taken by storm) (1973)
* ''El tigre saltó y mató, pero morirá... morirá...'' (The Tiger leaps and kills, but it will die...) (1973)
* ''Abril de Vietnam an el ano del gato'' (1975)
* ''Mi Hermano Fidel'' (1977)
See also
*
Cinema of Cuba
References
External links
*
''NOW!'' (1965) officially posted by HFFNY on Vimeo
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alvarez, Santiago
1919 births
1998 deaths
Cuban documentary filmmakers
Cuban communists
Cuban film directors
Cuban film producers
Neurological disease deaths in Cuba
Deaths from Parkinson's disease
Cuban expatriates in the United States
Collage filmmakers