
Directing
Tomás Gutiérrez Alea
Born — Died
1928-12-11 — 1996-04-16
Place of birth
Havana, Cuba
Known for
Directing
Credits
46 titles
Tomás Gutiérrez Alea was a Cuban film director and screenwriter. He wrote and directed more than twenty features, documentaries, and short films, which are known for his sharp insight into post-Revolutionary Cuba, and possess a delicate balance between dedication to the revolution and criticism of its social, economic, and political aftermaths in the country.
Known for
NRNo synopsis available yet.
Lo + plus
1995
7.0In 1979 Cuba, flamboyant gay artist Diego attempts to seduce straitlaced David, an idealistic young communist, and fails dismally. But David conspires to be "friends" with Diego so he can monitor the artist's subversive life for the state. As Diego and David discuss politics, individuality and personal expression in Castro's Cuba, a genuine friendship develops between the two.
Strawberry and Chocolate
1993
7.3A photo montage of Cubans filmed by Agnès Varda during her visit to Cuba in 1963, four years after Fidel Castro came to power. This black & white documentary explores their socialist culture and society while making use of 1500 pictures (out of 4000!) the filmmaker took while on the island.
Hello Cubans
1963
7.3Contemporary film critics regard the epic film I Am Cuba as a modern masterpiece. The 1964 Cuban/Soviet coproduction marked a watershed moment of cultural collaboration between two nations. Yet the film never found a mass audience, languishing for decades until its reintroduction as a "classic" in the 1990s. Vicente Ferraz explores the strange history of this cinematic tour de force, and the deeper meaning for those who participated in its creation.
I Am Cuba, the Siberian Mammoth
2005
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
7.4A model Cuban revolutionary tragically dies at work and, as a badge of honor, is buried with his labor card in his suit pocket. When his widow attempts to apply for his pension, the pension office demands the original labor card. Desperate, his nephew embarks on an increasingly chaotic and surreal quest through the Cuban bureaucratic system to secure permission to exhume the body, only to be met with endless forms, contradictory regulations, and apathetic officials.
Death of a Bureaucrat
1966
Film credits
2000s · 3 titles
7.3Contemporary film critics regard the epic film I Am Cuba as a modern masterpiece. The 1964 Cuban/Soviet coproduction marked a watershed moment of cultural collaboration between two nations. Yet the film never found a mass audience, languishing for decades until its reintroduction as a "classic" in the 1990s. Vicente Ferraz explores the strange history of this cinematic tour de force, and the deeper meaning for those who participated in its creation.
I Am Cuba, the Siberian Mammoth
2005
6.5Documentary about the relationship between filmmaker Glauber Rocha and Cuba.
Rocha Que Voa
2002
A look at the life and work of Cuban filmmaker Tomas Gutierrez Alea.
Titón: From Havana to Guantanamera, 1928-1996
2008
1960s · 2 titles
7.3A photo montage of Cubans filmed by Agnès Varda during her visit to Cuba in 1963, four years after Fidel Castro came to power. This black & white documentary explores their socialist culture and society while making use of 1500 pictures (out of 4000!) the filmmaker took while on the island.
Hello Cubans
1963
A couple faces various difficulties due to the new realities that accompany the triumph of the Cuban Revolution.
The End
1964
Series credits
Behind the camera
7.0In 1979 Cuba, flamboyant gay artist Diego attempts to seduce straitlaced David, an idealistic young communist, and fails dismally. But David conspires to be "friends" with Diego so he can monitor the artist's subversive life for the state. As Diego and David discuss politics, individuality and personal expression in Castro's Cuba, a genuine friendship develops between the two.
Strawberry and Chocolate
1993
7.4A model Cuban revolutionary tragically dies at work and, as a badge of honor, is buried with his labor card in his suit pocket. When his widow attempts to apply for his pension, the pension office demands the original labor card. Desperate, his nephew embarks on an increasingly chaotic and surreal quest through the Cuban bureaucratic system to secure permission to exhume the body, only to be met with endless forms, contradictory regulations, and apathetic officials.
Death of a Bureaucrat
1966
7.4A model Cuban revolutionary tragically dies at work and, as a badge of honor, is buried with his labor card in his suit pocket. When his widow attempts to apply for his pension, the pension office demands the original labor card. Desperate, his nephew embarks on an increasingly chaotic and surreal quest through the Cuban bureaucratic system to secure permission to exhume the body, only to be met with endless forms, contradictory regulations, and apathetic officials.
Death of a Bureaucrat
1966
5.6In 1672 Cuban revolutionaries launch an uprising against the Spanish who are occupying the country. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2017.
A Cuban Fight Against Demons
1972
5.6In 1672 Cuban revolutionaries launch an uprising against the Spanish who are occupying the country. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2017.
A Cuban Fight Against Demons
1972
In Asamblea general (1960), the documentary about Fidel's address of the First Declaration of Havana in the Plaza of the Revolution, Alea practises what becomes a sustaining Cuban contribution to documentary. Engaging with Free Cinema and cinema-vérité, his camera seems to touch the faces of the new citizen one by one rather than as a single mass before a leader.
General Assembly
1960
7.2In the aftermath of the Bay of Pigs incident, Sergio chooses to stay behind in Cuba while his wife and family escape to neighboring Miami. Alone in a brave new world, Sergio observes the constant threat of foreign invasion while chasing young women all over Havana. He finally meets Elena, a young girl he seeks to mould into the image of his ex-wife, but at what cost to himself?
Memories of Underdevelopment
1968
7.2In the aftermath of the Bay of Pigs incident, Sergio chooses to stay behind in Cuba while his wife and family escape to neighboring Miami. Alone in a brave new world, Sergio observes the constant threat of foreign invasion while chasing young women all over Havana. He finally meets Elena, a young girl he seeks to mould into the image of his ex-wife, but at what cost to himself?
Memories of Underdevelopment
1968
No synopsis available yet.
Contigo en la distancia
1991
6.5During the 'Special Period', the members of a funeral procession cross paths with truckdrivers who have to take the same route, and begin to talk about God and the world. They discover that life for both groups has many similarities, as well as a lot of differences.
Guantanamera
1995
6.5During the 'Special Period', the members of a funeral procession cross paths with truckdrivers who have to take the same route, and begin to talk about God and the world. They discover that life for both groups has many similarities, as well as a lot of differences.
Guantanamera
1995
6.2A Haitian son returns from fifteen years in Cuba to find his home village afflicted with the double plague of drought and strife. A Cuban production from the director of Memories of Underdevelopment. In Spanish.
Cumbite
1964
6.2A Haitian son returns from fifteen years in Cuba to find his home village afflicted with the double plague of drought and strife. A Cuban production from the director of Memories of Underdevelopment. In Spanish.
Cumbite
1964
7.4A bourgeois Cuban family of aristocratic origin locks itself into its mansion when the Cuban Revolution comes to power, waiting for the new regime to be overthrown. As time passes, they regress to older and older systems of political order, from capitalism to feudalism to "primitive savagery."
The Survivors
1979
7.4A bourgeois Cuban family of aristocratic origin locks itself into its mansion when the Cuban Revolution comes to power, waiting for the new regime to be overthrown. As time passes, they regress to older and older systems of political order, from capitalism to feudalism to "primitive savagery."
The Survivors
1979
7.5When her country is taken over by socialist revolutionaries, a wealthy woman can't bear to give up all of her wealth and possessions to the new government, so she hides all of her treasures in the 12 chairs of a dining-room set. After her death her nephew finds out what she had done and, since the chairs had been "nationalized" and are now in the possession of a dozen different people, he sets out to track them down and get the treasures he believes rightfully belong to him.
The Twelve Chairs
1962
7.5When her country is taken over by socialist revolutionaries, a wealthy woman can't bear to give up all of her wealth and possessions to the new government, so she hides all of her treasures in the 12 chairs of a dining-room set. After her death her nephew finds out what she had done and, since the chairs had been "nationalized" and are now in the possession of a dozen different people, he sets out to track them down and get the treasures he believes rightfully belong to him.
The Twelve Chairs
1962
7.9A pious plantation owner attempts to teach Christianity to 12 of his slaves by inviting them to participate in a reenactment of the Last Supper.
The Last Supper
1976
7.9A pious plantation owner attempts to teach Christianity to 12 of his slaves by inviting them to participate in a reenactment of the Last Supper.
The Last Supper
1976
No synopsis available yet.
La sexta parte del mundo
1977
5.9Produced by ICAIC in the wake of the Bay of Pigs invasion, "Muerte al invasor" chronicles the three days of fighting at Playa Girón, portraying the rapid mobilization of Cuban forces and civilians against a CIA-backed exile army.
Muerte al invasor
1962
6.2Matanzas, Cuba, 1913. Two young people who are in love communicate through letters written by penman. When the young man leaves town, to become a pilot, the girl discovers she is really in love with the one who wrote the letters.
Letters from the Park
1989
6.2Matanzas, Cuba, 1913. Two young people who are in love communicate through letters written by penman. When the young man leaves town, to become a pilot, the girl discovers she is really in love with the one who wrote the letters.
Letters from the Park
1989
6.5Susana, a beautiful young girl living in 1990, is happily looking forward to her forthcoming marriage - and has bought an antique mirror to grace her future home. Three weeks before the wedding, the mirror is delivered to her Grandmother's home and taken to Susana's room. Later that day, when looking into the glass, Susana is startled to see the image of a handsome soldier, Nicolas (from 1863), instead of her own reflection. It soon becomes obvious that he can see Susana as clearly as she can see him - and life, for them both, is never quite the same again. Contains three shorts as a trilogy: The Two Way Mirror (El espejo de dos lunas) 1990, 0:29:23 With You from a Distance (Contigo en la distancia) 1991, 0:27:38 Saturday Night Thief (Ladrón de sábado) 1996, 0:24:57
Con el amor no se juega
1991
6.3A close-up examination of laborers creating Cuban cigars intercut with artistic advertising labels and postures for those cigars. Silent with musical accompaniment.
El arte del tabaco
1974
No synopsis available yet.
Il sogno de Giovanni Bassain
1953
No synopsis available yet.
Il sogno de Giovanni Bassain
1953
6.6Based on the novel Francisco by Anselmo Suárez y Romero, "The Other Francisco" is a socio-economic analysis of slavery and class struggle through the retelling of the original novel. The film contrasts the romantic conceptions of plantation life found in Suárez Romero's novel with a realistic expose of the actual historical conditions of slavery throughout the Americas. It offers a critical analysis of the novel, showing how the author's social background led to his use of particular dramatic structures to convey his liberal, humanitarian viewpoint.
The Other Francisco
1977
6.3A film about the Cuban Revolution told from three different perspectives.
Stories of the Revolution
1960
6.3A film about the Cuban Revolution told from three different perspectives.
Stories of the Revolution
1960
5.6The unfair distribution of land in Cuba encourages the support of the peasants to the revolution.
This Is Our Land
1959
8.0A short film based on a story by Franz Kafka. Two men meet to resolve an issue, but are unable to do so due to a series of adverse circumstances.
A Daily Mix-up
1950
8.0A short film based on a story by Franz Kafka. Two men meet to resolve an issue, but are unable to do so due to a series of adverse circumstances.
A Daily Mix-up
1950
4.5A theater director and script-writer falls for a female worker from the Havana docks, but his machismo, social and working conflicts, and the Cuban woman's condition interfere with their relationship.
Up to a Certain Point
1983
4.5A theater director and script-writer falls for a female worker from the Havana docks, but his machismo, social and working conflicts, and the Cuban woman's condition interfere with their relationship.
Up to a Certain Point
1983
No synopsis available yet.
La Caperucita Roja
1947
No synopsis available yet.
El camino de la mirra y el incienso
1975
No synopsis available yet.
El Faquir
1947

