Santiago Álvarez
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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.
Known for
Credits
Brascuba (1987)
Director
LBJ (1968)
Director
Now! (1965)
Director
79 Springs (1969)
Director
Che (1972)
Director
Crisis en el Caribe (Noticiero ICAIC) (1962)
Director
My Brother, Fidel (1977)
Director
Muerte al invasor (1962)
Director
The Servant's Dream (1970)
Director
The Tiger Leaps and Kills, But It Will Die... It Will Die... (1973)
Director
¿Cómo, por qué y para qué se asesina un general? (1971)
Director
Cerro Pelado (1966)
Director
La marcha del pueblo combatiente (1980)
Director
Solidaridad Cuba y Vietnam (1965)
Director
The Forgotten War (1967)
Director
Noticiero ICAIC Latinoamericano (1960)
Director
Cyclone (1964)
Director
The Necessary War (1980)
Director
Take-Off at 18:00 Hours (1969)
Director
The New Tango (1973)
Director
Hasta la Victoria Siempre (1967)
Director
The Stampede (1971)
Director
Hanoi, Tuesday 13th (1969)
Director
To Die for Your Country Is to Live Forever (1976)
Director
The First Delegate (1975)
Director
Biografía de un carnaval (1983)
Director
Historia de una Plaza (1989)
Director
Abril de Girón (1966)
Director
El milagro de la tierra morena (1974)
Director
Noticiero ICAIC Latinoamericano No. 466: Celebration of the VI Amateur World Series in the Dominican Republic. Cuba-USA Final. (1969)
Director
Año 7 (Noticiero No. 290) (1966)
Director
April in Vietnam in the Year of the Cat (1975)
Director
El octubre de todos (1977)
Director
And Heaven Was Taken by Storm (1973)
Director
I Am a Son of America (1972)
Director
Luanda ya no es de San Pablo (1976)
Director
Maputo meridiano novo (1976)
Director
[Opening speech for the retrospective “Cuban Documentary Film”] [excerpt] (1974)
Director
Noticiero ICAIC Latinoamericano, No. 422 (1968)
Director
La hora de los cerdos (1973)
Director
Piedra sobre piedra (1970)
Director
The Four Bridges (1974)
Director