
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
NRDocumentary 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
6.7A 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
NRThrough 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
6.5Documentary about the relationship between filmmaker Glauber Rocha and Cuba.
Rocha Que Voa
2002
7.5Political propaganda film made during the Spanish Civil War.
Towards Unity and Victory
1937
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
7.3A 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
Los Ojos de Santiago retraces the filmmaking career of Álvarez, particularly his work in Vietnam and Cuba.
Los Ojos de Santiago
—
5.0A portrait of the great radical Cuban film maker Santiago Alvarez.
Accelerated Under-Development: In the Idiom of Santiago Alvarez
1999
Behind the camera
6.1This 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
6.1This 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
5.8Documentary 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
5.9This 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
2.0An educational documentary film about planting and harvesting tomatoes.
El Tomate
1959
6.3Using 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
5.7A 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
5.6An 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
5.6An 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
7.0No synopsis available yet.
Brascuba
1987
7.0No synopsis available yet.
Brascuba
1987
5.7CICLÓN 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
Short documentary recounting the history of the Santiago de Cuba carnival.
Biografía de un carnaval
1983
Short documentary recounting the history of the Santiago de Cuba carnival.
Biografía de un carnaval
1983
7.1Created 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
6.8An 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
6.8An 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
8.0This 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
8.0This 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
6.6In 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
6.6In 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
NRThe 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
NRThe 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
5.9Follows 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