Dervis Pastor Espinosa

Outstanding cameraman and founder of the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC).

He was born in Banes, Oriente. In 1955 he graduated as a technician in electricity, radio and television. He began his working life in Mayarí, Holguín, as a radio receiver technician.

He entered cinema by chance. In 1959 he joined as a camera and electrical assistant in the newly created Film Department of the Rebel Army's Culture Directorate. When ICAIC was created, he moved there as a camera assistant and was later promoted to cameraman, a position he has held to the present day.

Following the revolutionary triumph of 1959, Pastor Espinosa ventured into the audiovisual world alongside notable Cuban filmmakers such as Julio García Espinosa and Tomás Gutiérrez Alea (Titón), in addition to collaborating with the Film Department of the Rebel Army.

His lens captured in images the travels of Cuba's principal leaders in the early years of the Revolution, and numerous international events and facts of great significance, including the armed conflicts in Vietnam, Laos, Angola and Guinea as a war correspondent for the ICAIC Latin American News.

In 1960 he was part of the work team of this audiovisual space, which until his death was directed by the renowned Cuban filmmaker Santiago Álvarez (1919-1998), and in which he produced more than a thousand editions.

Titles such as Esta tierra nuestra, Sexto aniversario and Realengo 18 (1961) are part of his filmography, to which several documentaries are added.

A member of the Union of Journalists of Cuba and the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba, Pastor Espinosa collaborated with the International Film and Television School of San Antonio de los Baños, located in the province of Artemisa.

Among the most representative films in his work we can cite: Ciclón, Cuba 2 de enero, De América soy hijo…y a ella me debo, Angola: victoria de la esperanza, Hasta la victoria siempre, Madina Boe, Crónica de la dignidad, Leo Brower, Realengo 18, La nueva escuela, Brascuba, Baconao, un paraíso bajo el sol, among other important works.

He holds the Order of the Nile, the Ho Chi Minh seal, the National Culture Distinction, the Félix Elmuza Distinction and the Replica of Máximo Gómez's Machete.