Santiago Álvarez
Directing
1919-03-18 · Havana, Cuba
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.
Filmography
Éter
2019 · Movie
El camino de Santiago: Periodismo, cine y revolución
2013 · Movie
Memória Cubana
2010 · Movie
Rocha Que Voa
2002 · Movie
Accelerated Under-Development: In the Idiom of Santiago Alvarez
1999 · Movie
Historia de una Plaza
1989 · Movie
Brascuba
1987 · Movie
Coarse Salt
1984 · Movie
Claves, 4: Memories of Cuban cinema
1984 · Movie
Biografía de un carnaval
1983 · Movie
La marcha del pueblo combatiente
1980 · Movie
The Necessary War
1980 · Movie
My Brother, Fidel
1977 · Movie
El octubre de todos
1977 · Movie
To Die for Your Country Is to Live Forever
1976 · Movie
Luanda ya no es de San Pablo
1976 · Movie
Maputo meridiano novo
1976 · Movie
April in Vietnam in the Year of the Cat
1975 · Movie
The First Delegate
1975 · Movie
[Opening speech for the retrospective “Cuban Documentary Film”] [excerpt]
1974 · Movie
El milagro de la tierra morena
1974 · Movie
The Four Bridges
1974 · Movie
The New Tango
1973 · Movie
La hora de los cerdos
1973 · Movie
The Tiger Leaps and Kills, But It Will Die... It Will Die...
1973 · Movie
And Heaven Was Taken by Storm
1973 · Movie
I Am a Son of America
1972 · Movie
Che
1972 · Movie
The Stampede
1971 · Movie
El Drama de Nixon
1971 · Movie
¿Cómo, por qué y para qué se asesina un general?
1971 · Movie
Entrevista al presidente Salvador Allende (Noticiero ICAIC Latinoamericano)
1970 · Movie
Piedra sobre piedra
1970 · Movie
The Servant's Dream
1970 · Movie
79 Springs
1969 · Movie
Take-Off at 18:00 Hours
1969 · Movie
Hanoi, Tuesday 13th
1969 · Movie
Noticiero ICAIC Latinoamericano No. 466: Celebration of the VI Amateur World Series in the Dominican Republic. Cuba-USA Final.
1969 · Movie
Noticiero ICAIC Latinoamericano, No. 422
1968 · Movie
LBJ
1968 · Movie
Hasta la Victoria Siempre
1967 · Movie
The Forgotten War
1967 · Movie
Cerro Pelado
1966 · Movie
Año 7 (Noticiero No. 290)
1966 · Movie
Abril de Girón
1966 · Movie
Primeros Juegos Deportivos Nacionales en Cuba (Noticiero ICAIC Latinoamericano)
1965 · Movie
Now!
1965 · Movie
Solidaridad Cuba y Vietnam
1965 · Movie
Cyclone
1964 · Movie
Valentina Tereshkova visita a Cuba (Noticiero ICAIC Latinoamericano)
1963 · Movie
Muerte al invasor
1962 · Movie
Crisis en el Caribe (Noticiero ICAIC)
1962 · Movie
Carnival
1960 · Movie
Noticiero ICAIC Latinoamericano
1960 · Movie
El Tomate
1959 · Movie
Towards Unity and Victory
1937 · Movie
Los Ojos de Santiago
Movie