Santiago Álvarez
Nacimiento : 1919-03-18, Havana, Cuba
Muerte : 1998-05-20
Historia
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 activities.[1] After the Cuban Revolution he became a founding member of the Cuban Film Institute (ICAIC) and directed its weekly Latin American Newsreel.[2]
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. 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.
Among the other subjects he explored in his films were the musical and cultural scene in Latin America 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.[3]
He died of Parkinson's disease in Havana on May 20, 1998 and was buried there in the Colon Cemetery.
Himself
A portrait of the great radical Cuban film maker Santiago Alvarez.
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Horacio
Un famoso compositor atraviesa por una crisis creativa y debe componer un nuevo disco, pero está pasando por una dolorosa separación que le impide concentrarse. Ante esta situación, su mánager le ofrecerá un plazo de prórroga.
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Alvarez' longest documentary examination of the Cuban Revolution, this contains exceptional interviews with Fidel, Raúl, Almeida, Vilma, Haydee, Celia and Faustino Perez, among other key players in the Revolution.
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El documental narra el encuentro entre Fidel Castro y Salustiano Leyva, un anciano que a los 11 años tuvo un encuentro con José Martí, en la breve visita que este hiciera a su casa el día que desembarcó por Playita de Cajobabo, el 11 de abril de 1895. Salustiano, sin saber por quién está siendo entrevistado debido a su mala visión, hace referencia a la presencia constante de Martí en la persona del comandante, y es luego, al final de la charla, que Fidel se da a conocer al anciano.
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El documental narra el encuentro entre Fidel Castro y Salustiano Leyva, un anciano que a los 11 años tuvo un encuentro con José Martí, en la breve visita que este hiciera a su casa el día que desembarcó por Playita de Cajobabo, el 11 de abril de 1895. Salustiano, sin saber por quién está siendo entrevistado debido a su mala visión, hace referencia a la presencia constante de Martí en la persona del comandante, y es luego, al final de la charla, que Fidel se da a conocer al anciano.
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A short film by Santiago Alvarez
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The short film El primer delegado (The First Delegate), made by a group of ICAIC directors, recounts the moments in which José Martí announced the foundations and statutes of the Cuban Revolutionary Party, the tireless struggle that the hero sustained throughout his life to obtain independence, his gifts as a political organizer, the final founding of the party, of which he was the first delegate, and his offer to General Máximo Gómez of the military leadership of the insurrection, the final founding of the party, of which he was the first delegate, and his offer to General Máximo Gómez of the military leadership of the insurrection, all narrated live by an announcer who entertains with his reading the work of the cigar makers in a tobacco factory, until the documentary reaches its final climax: the symbolic reconversion of the old Marti's party into a new one.
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The short film El primer delegado (The First Delegate), made by a group of ICAIC directors, recounts the moments in which José Martí announced the foundations and statutes of the Cuban Revolutionary Party, the tireless struggle that the hero sustained throughout his life to obtain independence, his gifts as a political organizer, the final founding of the party, of which he was the first delegate, and his offer to General Máximo Gómez of the military leadership of the insurrection, the final founding of the party, of which he was the first delegate, and his offer to General Máximo Gómez of the military leadership of the insurrection, all narrated live by an announcer who entertains with his reading the work of the cigar makers in a tobacco factory, until the documentary reaches its final climax: the symbolic reconversion of the old Marti's party into a new one.
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Documentary film on the end of the Vietnam War, the fall of Saigon and the departure of American troops, as well as a tracing of 4000 years of Vietnamese culture.
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Filmed in Cuba, a documentary about communism in Cuba
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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.
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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.
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Short film by Santiago Alvarez
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A chronicle of Fidel Castro's two-month tour of ten East European and African nations in mid-1972.
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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.
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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.
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Recollections of Fidel Castro's visit to Chile on November, 1971, and of the historical imperialist exploitation of Latin America.
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Political satire on the defeat suffered by the North American and Saigon forces in the south of Laos in February 1971.
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Documentary short about the death of Chilean general René Schneider by the CIA, following the election of Salvador Allende as president of the nation.
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Documentary about the earthquake that devastated the Yungai area on May 31, 1970, which killed more than 40,000 Peruvians.
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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
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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
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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.
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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.
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This film confronts the failures of the Cuban economy, although it is made in a Guevara-like spirit of moral exhortation rather than criticism.
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This film confronts the failures of the Cuban economy, although it is made in a Guevara-like spirit of moral exhortation rather than criticism.
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Con una estructura poética y narrativa, e incluyendo párrafos de José Martí escritos en 1889, se muestra cómo vivió y luchó por su libertad el pueblo vietnamita a partir del día en que comenzaron los bombardeos a la ciudad de Hanoi, durante la guerra del Vietnam.
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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.
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An obituary of Che Guevara, made in forty-eight hours to be shown at the mass meeting on the 18th October 1967 in the Plaza de la Revolucion in Havana, where Fidel Castro announced the death of Guevara in Bolivia.
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Focuses on the history of foreign intervention in Laos, first by France and then by the United States. It shows how the liberation forces of Laos, under continuous U.S. bombing, were able to run an entire society in hidden caves and tunnels. Through the leadership of the Pathet Lao, they organized schools, cultural activities, clinics, as well as political and military activities literally underground.
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Noticiero sobre los siete años de la revolución cubana.
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Cerro Pelado toma su título del nombre del barco que trasladó a los deportistas cubanos a los décimos Juegos Centroamericanos y del Caribe, celebrados en 1966 en San Juan, Puerto Rico. Al tratarse de una colonia norteamericana, Estados Unidos intentó evitar la participación de la delegación cubana.
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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.
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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.
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Short documentary about Cuba's resistance to American invasion.
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Short documentary about Cuba's resistance to American invasion.
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Documenting news all over Latin America.
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Documenting news all over Latin America.
Political propaganda film made during the Spanish Civil War.
Los Ojos de Santiago retraces the filmmaking career of Álvarez, particularly his work in Vietnam and Cuba.
Santiago Alvarez
Homenaje a Santiago Álvarez, gran renovador del lenguaje de las imágenes de los noticieros cubanos, desde el ICAIC a lo largo de treinta años. Se reconstruye a esta figura única en el panorama del cine latinoamericano. Contada como un juego de cajas chinas (documentales dentro de documentales, autores dentro de autores, imágenes dentro de imágenes), la obsesión de Álvarez se revela idéntica a la de sus discípulos: confrontar la realidad de Cuba con otras realidades, poniendo en escena operaciones estéticas que no dejan de ser operaciones políticas, siempre a favor de la Revolución.
