Alejandro Alonso Estrella

Cuban filmmaker Alejandro Alonso is a director and photographer, graduated in the Documentary Direction Specialty at EICTV. He holds a degree in Sociocultural Studies from the University of Pinar del Río. He completed the Documentary Direction specialty at EICTV.

He was born in Pinar del Río and resides in Havana, Cuba. He began to think about and make films with the cultural project La Concretera, founded by him and Lázaro Lemus. He studied documentary direction at the International Film and Television School located in San Antonio de los Baños, completing his studies in 2015.

In 2010 he began making short films, many of which have had a notable international trajectory.

He presented himself for the first time at the Muestra with the documentary Evocación (10th), followed by Delirio (11th) and Cierra los ojos (12th) —both codirected with Lázaro O. Lemus—, Crisálida (12th) —codirected with Rossana Méndez, Esther de Rothschild and Laura Cantal—, Velas (13th), La despedida (14th), Duelo (16th) and El hijo del sueño (16th, Bonus). He competes in this edition with the documentaries El Proyecto and Metatrón.

With Crisálida he won the award for best documentary short at the Oaxaca Film Festival and the award for best documentary short at the N.Y.C Short Film Festival.

Cierra los Ojos received a mention at the 12th ICAIC Young Muestra, while Velas won the award for best documentary at the 13th edition.

His short La despedida, which had its international premiere at IDFA (Holland), has won the following awards: best film in the Aciertos category at FICUNAM (Mexico); Full Frame President Award (United States); special jury mention at the 44th Sehsüchte (Germany), and best documentary at the Gibara Film Festival (Cuba).

Duelo premiered at Cinema du Réel, a festival organized by the Pompidou Museum (France), and won the award for best short film at the 32nd Mar del Plata Film Festival (Argentina), and best short film at the 58th Festival dei Popoli (Italy). The project had its world premiere at Visions du Réel (Switzerland), obtained the FIPRESCI Award at Dok Leipzig (Germany) and was considered by Cuban critics as the best documentary made on the island in 2017.

Metatrón had its world premiere at Visions du Réel (Switzerland). Home is the result of the residency granted to him by MEP and the Cité des Arts in Paris during the fall of 2018.

In 2019, "Home", the result of the residency granted to him by MEP and the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris during the fall of 2018, had its European premiere at the 23rd IDFF Ji.hlava in addition to being part of the Neighboring Scenes programmed by the Lincoln Center in NYC.

The Cuban film Abisal (2021), the most recent work by Alejandro Alonso (Velas, El hijo del sueño, Home, Metatrón, Duelo, El proyecto, Terranova), won the Golden Dove award for best documentary short at the 64th edition of the Dok Leipzig Festival.

His films have been exhibited in Cuba, Mexico, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Brazil, United States of America, Canada, Indonesia, Japan, Holland, Spain, Italy, Hungary, Georgia, Switzerland, Germany, Romania, Russia and France.

In 2017 and 2019 he coordinated the Alternative Cinema Master's program at EICTV.

Alejandro has stated: "My first approach to cinema was in a film club in my province: La noche del Caballete Rojo. Today I make films thanks to those nights of debate and complicity. EICTV has been the breach to skirt the wall that surrounds national cinema, so corrupted and complacent. There I found the necessary stimuli to develop obsessions and expand concerns and references."