Eduardo de la Torre

Cameraman, documentary filmmaker and journalist Eduardo de la Torre, who worked for many years in the Film Section of the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, died from cardiovascular complications.

He carried out important missions as a war correspondent in several countries including Angola, Syria and the Saharawi Arab Republic, as well as within Cuba during the October Crisis, the fight against bandits in the Escambray and provocations at the Guantánamo naval base against our people.

De la Torre, born in Havana, completed his journalism studies in 1981.

For his professional work he received numerous recognitions, including the Replica of the Machete of Generalísimo Máximo Gómez, the Distinction for National Culture and the Félix Elmuza Distinction from UPEC.

De la Torre is the author of the book "The Journalist Has So Much of the Soldier" about cameraman Argelio Pérez, who was a war correspondent in Algeria, Vietnam and other international conflicts. This book was published on the pages of the digital site cubaperiodistas.cu in 2011.

He died at the age of 73 and left an extensive cinematographic body of work, mainly in the documentary field.

Throughout half a century he lived cinema and journalism as a true adventure with no time for rest, especially military cinema. That is why he is possibly the Cuban filmmaker who has filmed the most war scenes on land, air and sea, including the underwater world.

It was common to see him coming and going, whether to Africa or the Middle East, always full of anecdotes and with a creative enthusiasm without which —he used to say— nothing can be undertaken.

Nearly 80 documentaries, some award-winning internationally, and a work of fiction that has been able to be seen on television. He also had time to practice written journalism, short story writing and essay writing, and in recent times his historical serials stood out in which he combined reporting with fiction.

As a true expert in military language, and an enviable adventurer of recent years, Eduardo de la Torre is a man who keeps and shares his knowledge with anyone who approaches him.

Seated in front of a group of university students or conversing with younger colleagues, De la Torre does not waste time giving one piece of advice or another.

"This happens to us old folks," he says jokingly, about yet another encounter he has harvested among new generations throughout his career.

De la Torre is a cheerful man, a born knower, a seeker of facts, and what many journalists would like to do in their lives: a great adventurer. He has made aerial images, aquatic footage and filmed hundreds of war scenes.

Cuban by birth, later graduated in journalism and cinematography, he has practiced his profession in countless countries, such as the former Soviet Union (USSR) and the Middle East.

In his beginnings, necessity led him to intertwine the academic with practice, and of course over the years that experience has become the engine of the success he now has in his profession.

Currently, he is considered a reference in Cuban cinematography. And it's no wonder, he has in his record the filming of just over 80 documentaries, since that is his specialty. His knowledge of cinema and journalism increased his knowledge in the documentary cinema field.

De la Torre was in San Salvador on a work visit, but which allowed him to respond to an invitation from the Union of Journalists and Similar Professionals of El Salvador (SINPESS) and the Association of Journalism Students (AEP) of the University of El Salvador, to develop a conversation about cinema and journalism. The activity was rated by the organizers as a "success." Since many journalism students, practicing journalists and teachers showed enthusiasm for the "lecture" offered by the Cuban cinema master.

Diario Co Latino spoke with Eduardo, who highlighted two things to do the work well: not give up "and believe the story from the beginning," he recommended to those starting out in the profession and "lots of creativity" for those who have already advanced on the path. De la Torre is a simple man, in fact it bothers him when they call him a reference or a famous Cuban filmmaker, he presents himself as a humble Caribbean who one day liked photography, went out to the streets to film everything that appeared, and later in his country's army, developed what is today considered a valuable contribution through Cuban cinema techniques. With great creativity, full mastery of the documentary and a recognized war correspondent in the Middle East, De la Torre has already made history in Cuban cinema.

All that accumulation of information and experience he warns with humor "is like 900 pesos in salary" and later adds to his presentation that "of the arts, cinema is the most important for us." For which he recommends to young people to fight to meet their goals.

Since 1959, when the Cuban revolution took place, cinema became an important element for this process, and that is how it manages to develop fiction and documentary cinema, with the thematic line being the facts of the revolution. "Documentary cinema has been fundamental, because it has communicated the entire process of the revolution…," he notes.

- How is cinema made today in Cuba?

With the fall of our commercial partner from the socialist field, cinema fell into a depression for logical reasons of money… because cinema is not only art. It is art and industry and it was quite depressed, so it began to look for commercial partners to make co-productions… films are beginning to be made on video support, but they are transferred to celluloid to project them in large theaters. Today we have friends, commercial partners, companies that are rising up, already almost all directors have returned to making fiction films. In Cuba we are documentarians.

- And how does that essence of journalism work with cinema? Taking into account that in countries like ours for example the levels of consumerism are high…

With the loss of cinema, I don't know if cinemas have been lost here…

- Yes, of course, the old movie theaters

Or with people's little desire to go see documentaries exclusively, before I don't know if here, but in Cuba the documentary was accompanied with the fiction film. They would put it on and people would pay to see the fiction film… but there is no audience for documentaries specifically. In Havana there were two cinemas El Rex and the Duplex, which showed documentaries and had their specific audience for that, but with the climate problems, clothing, getting a vehicle comfortable, going to a theater…and in Cuba since the needs are many the air conditioners broke down, they were declining. Plus television arrived and became a means of dissemination, so I associate journalism more with T.V., because cinema journalism is no longer done.

- So now is it harder to make cinema than in the past when there were fewer resources?

Of course, because there is a cinematographic education in the population. In Cuba for example there are five programs that teach how to make cinema and television. You can't give people just anything, because they tell you no this is wrong, this sequence doesn't work and they speak to you like specialists… but we have taught it to them.

For that reason he considers it more than necessary, nowadays the combination of essence and creativity to achieve that the texts included in a documentary become a complement to the image that is displayed.

"You have to be careful when writing the text and what that image shows," he emphasizes and recommends.

"Don't give images just for the sake of it, put what is necessary, in the case of journalism, what you want people to see, don't waste ammunition on images that people won't see and aren't interested in."