Santiago Álvarez

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 …

Directed

1. Now! (1965) — Director
2. 79 Springs (1969) — Director
3. LBJ (1968) — Director
4. Hasta la Victoria Siempre (1967) — Director
5. Hanoi, Tuesday 13th (1969) — Director
6. The Tiger Leaps and Kills, But It Will Die... It Will Die... (1973) — Director
7. Muerte al invasor (1962) — Director
8. My Brother, Fidel (1977) — Director
9. The Forgotten War (1967) — Director
10. The Servant's Dream (1970) — Director
11. Cyclone (1964) — Director
12. Cerro Pelado (1966) — Director
13. I Am a Son of America (1972) — Director
14. ¿Cómo, por qué y para qué se asesina un general? (1971) — Director
15. April in Vietnam in the Year of the Cat (1975) — Director
16. The Necessary War (1980) — Director
17. And Heaven Was Taken by Storm (1973) — Director
18. The First Delegate (1975) — Director
19. Piedra sobre piedra (1970) — Director
20. Take-Off at 18:00 Hours (1969) — Director
21. The Stampede (1971) — Director
22. La hora de los cerdos (1973) — Director
23. To Die for Your Country Is to Live Forever (1976) — Director
24. The Four Bridges (1974) — Director
25. Año 7 (Noticiero No. 290) (1966) — Director
26. Brascuba (1987) — Director
27. Solidaridad Cuba y Vietnam (1965) — Director
28. Abril de Girón (1966) — Director
29. Luanda ya no es de San Pablo (1976) — Director
30. Maputo meridiano novo (1976) — Director
31. El octubre de todos (1977) — Director
32. Biografía de un carnaval (1983) — Director
33. The New Tango (1973) — Director
34. Noticiero ICAIC Latinoamericano No. 466: Celebration of the VI Amateur World Series in the Dominican Republic. Cuba-USA Final. (1969) — Director
35. Noticiero ICAIC Latinoamericano, No. 422 (1968) — Director
36. Noticiero ICAIC Latinoamericano (1960) — Director
37. Crisis en el Caribe (Noticiero ICAIC) (1962) — Director
38. Historia de una Plaza (1989) — Director
39. [Opening speech for the retrospective “Cuban Documentary Film”] [excerpt] (1974) — Director
40. El milagro de la tierra morena (1974) — Director

Also appeared in

1. Rocha Que Voa (2002) — Self (voice)
2. Coarse Salt (1984) — Horacio
3. Accelerated Under-Development: In the Idiom of Santiago Alvarez (1999) — Himself
4. El camino de Santiago: Periodismo, cine y revolución (2013) — Santiago Alvarez
5. Towards Unity and Victory (1937)
6. Los Ojos de Santiago
7. Memória Cubana (2010) — Self (archive footage)
8. El milagro de la tierra morena (1974)
9. Claves, 4: Memories of Cuban cinema (1984) — Self