Santiago Álvarez
Directing
Born 1919-03-18
Died 1998-05-20
Havana, Cuba
53 credits
Read biography
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.
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Filmography
Directing
42 credits
¿Cómo, por qué y para qué se asesina un general?
Now!
LBJ
Cerro Pelado
The Tiger Leaps and Kills, But It Will Die... It Will Die...
79 Springs
Brascuba
Cyclone
The Servant's Dream
The First Delegate
Hasta la Victoria Siempre
My Brother, Fidel
The Forgotten War
Año 7 (Noticiero No. 290)
Solidaridad Cuba y Vietnam
The New Tango
Hanoi, Tuesday 13th
Biografía de un carnaval
Take-Off at 18:00 Hours
The Necessary War
Muerte al invasor
Che
Crisis en el Caribe (Noticiero ICAIC)
To Die for Your Country Is to Live Forever
April in Vietnam in the Year of the Cat
The Stampede
Historia de una Plaza
La marcha del pueblo combatiente
Noticiero ICAIC Latinoamericano No. 466: Celebration of the VI Amateur World Series in the Dominican Republic. Cuba-USA Final.
El octubre de todos
Piedra sobre piedra
El milagro de la tierra morena
Abril de Girón
Luanda ya no es de San Pablo
The Four Bridges
I Am a Son of America
Noticiero ICAIC Latinoamericano
Maputo meridiano novo
La hora de los cerdos
Noticiero ICAIC Latinoamericano, No. 422
And Heaven Was Taken by Storm
[Opening speech for the retrospective “Cuban Documentary Film”] [excerpt]
Writing
17 credits
The Tiger Leaps and Kills, But It Will Die... It Will Die...
79 Springs
Brascuba
The Servant's Dream
The First Delegate
My Brother, Fidel
The Forgotten War
Solidaridad Cuba y Vietnam
The New Tango
Hanoi, Tuesday 13th
Biografía de un carnaval
Take-Off at 18:00 Hours
Historia de una Plaza
El octubre de todos
Abril de Girón
Luanda ya no es de San Pablo
Maputo meridiano novo
Acting
9 credits
Carnival
Éter
Claves, 4: Memories of Cuban cinema
Coarse Salt
Memória Cubana
Rocha Que Voa
El camino de Santiago: Periodismo, cine y revolución
Noticiero ICAIC Latinoamericano
Accelerated Under-Development: In the Idiom of Santiago Alvarez
Other credits
3 credits
Producing
2 credits
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