Santiago Álvarez

Directing

Santiago Álvarez

Born 1919-03-18 · Havana, Cuba

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.

Acting credits

Claves, 4: Memories of Cuban cinema poster
NR

Documentary in four parts on Latin American cinema. Fourth episode: in Cuba, the ICAIC, created in the aftermath of the Castro revolution, is at once a film school, a production company and a state cultural branch. Cuban filmmakers testify to the situation and themes specific to their national cinema.

Claves, 4: Memories of Cuban cinema

1984

Coarse Salt poster
6.7

A famous composer creative in crisis and must compose a new album, but is going through a painful separation that prevents him from concentrating. In this situation, your manager will provide a time extension

Coarse Salt

1984

Memória Cubana poster
NR

Through the files of Cuban cinema news program Noticieros ICAIC Latinoamericanos, the documentary shows the most relevant events of the second half of the 20th century as seen by the documentary filmmakers of the island. During three decades and under the general direction of Santiago Álvarez, these moviemakers witnessed almost everything: from the shivers of the Cold War to Bola de Nieve's piano solos; from the discovery of the killing fields in Cambodia to the Carnation Revolution in Portugal. In 2009, the original negatives of Noticieros ICAIC Latinoamericanos were declared part of the "world memory" by UNESCO.

Memória Cubana

2010

Rocha Que Voa poster
6.5

Documentary about the relationship between filmmaker Glauber Rocha and Cuba.

Rocha Que Voa

2002

Towards Unity and Victory poster
7.5

Political propaganda film made during the Spanish Civil War.

Towards Unity and Victory

1937

No artwork available
NR

A documentary made by Cuban journalists about the Portuguese revolution in 1974 that overthrew the dictatorship of Salazar

El milagro de la tierra morena

1974

El camino de Santiago: Periodismo, cine y revolución poster
7.3

A tribute to Santiago Álvarez, a great innovator in the language of Cuban newsreel images, presented by the ICAIC over the course of thirty years. This unique figure in Latin American cinema is reconstructed. Told as a game of Chinese boxes (documentaries within documentaries, authors within authors, images within images), Álvarez's obsession is revealed to be identical to that of his disciples: to confront the reality of Cuba with other realities, staging aesthetic operations that are nevertheless political operations, always in favor of the Revolution.

El camino de Santiago: Periodismo, cine y revolución

2013

No artwork available
NR

Los Ojos de Santiago retraces the filmmaking career of Álvarez, particularly his work in Vietnam and Cuba.

Los Ojos de Santiago

Accelerated Under-Development: In the Idiom of Santiago Alvarez poster
5.0

A portrait of the great radical Cuban film maker Santiago Alvarez.

Accelerated Under-Development: In the Idiom of Santiago Alvarez

1999

Behind the camera

79 Springs poster
6.1

This film memorializes the leader of Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh, on the occasion of his death. It narrates the story of a life which is also the story of a nation-recounting his important accomplishments in the struggle against colonialism and imperialism.

79 Springs

1969

79 Springs poster
6.1

This film memorializes the leader of Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh, on the occasion of his death. It narrates the story of a life which is also the story of a nation-recounting his important accomplishments in the struggle against colonialism and imperialism.

79 Springs

1969

¿Cómo, por qué y para qué se asesina un general? poster
5.8

Documentary short about the death of Chilean general René Schneider by the CIA, following the election of Salvador Allende as president of the nation.

¿Cómo, por qué y para qué se asesina un general?

1971

LBJ poster
5.9

This is a montage of different images from the JFK, Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy triumphs and assassinations, all three events being observed by Lyndon Johnson as the dark figure who is plotting the anti-black rights movement.

LBJ

1968

El Tomate poster
2.0

An educational documentary film about planting and harvesting tomatoes.

El Tomate

1959

Now! poster
6.3

Using morgue photos, newsreel footage, and a recording by Lena Horne, Cuban filmmaker Santiago Alvarez fired off 'Now!', one of the most powerful bursts of propaganda rendered in the 1960s.

Now!

1965

Cerro Pelado poster
5.7

A ship of athletes training on the rough seas becomes a symbol of Castro’s Cuba, the games projected on the backdrop of political struggle. This is the story of a ship and of a sports delegation whom the enemy tried to stop from participating in the Tenth Central American and Caribbean Games.

Cerro Pelado

1966

The Servant's Dream poster
5.6

An ordinary man goes to work in a rich household of Peru and has a dream in which he sees his boss and himself appearing as equal in front of the Archangel before going to heaven... Based on a tale by Jose Maria Argueda

The Servant's Dream

1970

The Servant's Dream poster
5.6

An ordinary man goes to work in a rich household of Peru and has a dream in which he sees his boss and himself appearing as equal in front of the Archangel before going to heaven... Based on a tale by Jose Maria Argueda

The Servant's Dream

1970

Brascuba poster
7.0

No synopsis available yet.

Brascuba

1987

Brascuba poster
7.0

No synopsis available yet.

Brascuba

1987

Cyclone poster
5.7

CICLÓN is a coverage of hurricane Flora's sweeping the Cuban provinces of Camagüey and Oriente in October 1963: the damage, the evacuation of the villages, and the aid to victims.

Cyclone

1964

No artwork available
10.0

Short documentary recounting the history of the Santiago de Cuba carnival.

Biografía de un carnaval

1983

No artwork available
10.0

Short documentary recounting the history of the Santiago de Cuba carnival.

Biografía de un carnaval

1983

Hasta la Victoria Siempre poster
7.1

Created within forty-eight hours of Che Guevara’s death, Hasta la Victoria Siempre is a Cuban documentary tribute that combines archival footage, speeches, and images of revolutionary struggle to commemorate Guevara and reaffirm the ideals of the Cuban Revolution.

Hasta la Victoria Siempre

1967

The Tiger Leaps and Kills, But It Will Die... It Will Die... poster
6.8

An obituary for Victor Jara, the Chilean folksinger who was murdered in a football stadium by the military junta during the days of the September 1973 coup.

The Tiger Leaps and Kills, But It Will Die... It Will Die...

1973

The Tiger Leaps and Kills, But It Will Die... It Will Die... poster
6.8

An obituary for Victor Jara, the Chilean folksinger who was murdered in a football stadium by the military junta during the days of the September 1973 coup.

The Tiger Leaps and Kills, But It Will Die... It Will Die...

1973

Take-Off at 18:00 Hours poster
8.0

This film confronts the failures of the Cuban economy, although it is made in a Guevara-like spirit of moral exhortation rather than criticism.

Take-Off at 18:00 Hours

1969

Take-Off at 18:00 Hours poster
8.0

This film confronts the failures of the Cuban economy, although it is made in a Guevara-like spirit of moral exhortation rather than criticism.

Take-Off at 18:00 Hours

1969

Hanoi, Tuesday 13th poster
6.6

In December 1967, a Cuban film crew led by Santiago Alvarez, the veteran polemicist, travelled to Hanoi. They shot the footage which constitutes this short documentary all in one day - Tuesday 13. The film is the story of that day and what happened to the North Vietnamese people in the course of it.

Hanoi, Tuesday 13th

1969

Hanoi, Tuesday 13th poster
6.6

In December 1967, a Cuban film crew led by Santiago Alvarez, the veteran polemicist, travelled to Hanoi. They shot the footage which constitutes this short documentary all in one day - Tuesday 13. The film is the story of that day and what happened to the North Vietnamese people in the course of it.

Hanoi, Tuesday 13th

1969

The New Tango poster
NR

The New Tango (El Nuevo Tango) was not shown in Argentina for a long time as it deals with the ascent of Argentinean president Hector Campora in May 1973, and features Cuban and Chilean presidents, Osvaldo Dorticos and Salvador Allende. A million people gathered on the Plaza de Mayo to acclaim the new President. One of Cámpora's first presidential actions was a granting of amnesty to political prisoners who where jailed during the dictatorship. On 28 May Argentina restored diplomatic relations with Cuba, which then received Argentine aid - such as food and industrial products - to break the United States embargo against Cuba.

The New Tango

1973

The New Tango poster
NR

The New Tango (El Nuevo Tango) was not shown in Argentina for a long time as it deals with the ascent of Argentinean president Hector Campora in May 1973, and features Cuban and Chilean presidents, Osvaldo Dorticos and Salvador Allende. A million people gathered on the Plaza de Mayo to acclaim the new President. One of Cámpora's first presidential actions was a granting of amnesty to political prisoners who where jailed during the dictatorship. On 28 May Argentina restored diplomatic relations with Cuba, which then received Argentine aid - such as food and industrial products - to break the United States embargo against Cuba.

The New Tango

1973

My Brother, Fidel poster
5.9

Follows the Cuban leader into the home of a 93 year old acquaintance of Jose Marti, who is now blind and who takes the duration of the film to realize who his illustrious interviewer actually is.

My Brother, Fidel

1977