5 short films of Santiago Álvarez :
– Now, 1965, 5′
– LBJ, 1968, 18′
– Hasta la victoria siempre, 1967, 19′
– 79 Primaveras, 1969, 25′
– El tigre saltó y mató… pero… morirá… morirá…!!, 1973, 16′
The Cuban Revolution turned this apprentice philosopher and doctor into the emblematic activist filmmaker of the Latin-American subcontinent. If the films of Santiago Alvarez have to this day kept all of their rage to the point of still rousing our emotion, it is because they are among the finest examples of what a poor cinema can achieve. Press photos and cuttings taken from their peaceful pages, archives scrutinised and replayed by the editing, graphics, speeches, words and texts – if Alverez’ films need no commentary, it is because they are hand-made. The formal and lampoonist brilliance of Alvarez became a reference point for a whole generation of budding filmmakers ranging from the New York Newsreel to the Medvedkine Group. Godard devoted Chapter 2b of Histoire(s) du cinema to him, under the fitting title Seul le cinéma. JB
