Humberto Solás Borrego

An emblematic figure of Cuban cinema and Spanish-language cinematography. Film director. Founder of the New Latin American Cinema movement. In 1968 he directed his first feature film, Lucía, considered by world critics as one of the ten most important films in the History of Ibero-American Cinema. He was the creator, founder, and president of the International Poor Cinema Festival of Gibara, which today, following his physical death and as a posthumous tribute to its founder, is named the International Poor Cinema Festival "Humberto Solás". In 2005 he received the National Cinema Prize.

He was born in Havana. He completed his primary education at the Academia La Salle and graduated with a degree in History from the University of Havana.

He participated in underground struggles as a member of the Movement 26 of July.

Marked by Italian Neorealism and the French New Wave, he began working in 1960 at the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC) as a producer and assistant director. He has made documentaries and feature films of fiction.

At 23 years old he traveled to Europe and became conscious of the need for a new artistic approach to Latin American and Cuban reality. His medium-length film Manuela (1966) demonstrates this. Solás, influenced by the aesthetics of Italian neorealism, gave the lead role in the film to Adela Legrá, a non-professional actress who achieved a sincere and fresh interpretation in her role as a guerrilla girl.

Among his notable films are: Casablanca, Variaciones, Minerva traduce el mar, El Retrato, El acoso, Pequeña crónica, Manuela, Lucía, Crear... dos... tres, Un día de noviembre, Simparele, Cantata de Chile, Nacer en Leningrado, Wifredo Lam, Cecilia, Amada, Un hombre de éxito, Obataleo, Buendía, El siglo de las luces and Miel para Oshún, Barrio Cuba.

Over more than 30 years, Solás made a significant contribution to national culture. His body of work is the embodiment of a humanism that concerns itself with the search for national and Latin American identity in function of the ideals of peace, harmony, and social justice. He is considered one of the most important directors of contemporary Latin American cinema.

His films have participated in official selections of the Cannes, Venice, Moscow, Toronto, Montreal, Havana, Sundance, and San Sebastián festivals, among many others.

He has won awards at numerous International Festivals (San Sebastián, Huelva, Cartagena, Moscow, Karlovy Vary, Valladolid, Milan Golden Globe, Tokyo, Festival of New Latin American Cinema in Havana, Barcelona, Cádiz, Sundance Film Festival, Washington D.C. Independent Film Festival, Chicago Latino Film Festival, Havana Film Festival of New York, Los Angeles Latino Film Festival).

His film Un Hombre de Éxito was the first Cuban film to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Film. The New York Times, Film Quarterly, El País, Le Monde, Cahier du Cinema, and several international media outlets have reflected the importance of his work.

Intellectual concern, humanism, and the outspoken expression of critical thought about reality form part of his committed vision of Cuban culture. Solás presided over the International Poor Cinema Festival until his death, a project that aims to motivate and promote creative and low-budget cinema, away from the dominant commercial paths in international cinematography.

His work, in a general sense, stems from a humanistic concern for national and Latin American identity, in function of the ideals of peace, harmony, and social justice. In his controversial film, Miel para Oshún (2001), he advocates for unity among all Cubans, regardless of races, creeds, and political differences.

Solás's aesthetics are sustained by a passionate experimentation that draws from classical heritage to insert itself into the currents of contemporary cinematographic avant-garde, where he is recognized as a key figure. From the platform of the International Poor Cinema Festival, which he founded and presided over, Solás urges the democratization and freedom of cinema made with few resources that enables the inclusion of both new filmmakers and entire communities in the world's audiovisual heritage, whose premises are oriented toward narrative search, commitment to human welfare and the environment, and the ethical freedom of expression.

Work
Sixties
In 1962 he co-directed the shorts Variaciones and Minerva traduce el mar, the latter inspired by a poem by José Lezama Lima. The following year he made El retrato, based on the story of the same name by Cuban writer Arístides Fernández.

After the documentary Pequeña crónica and the fiction medium-length film Manuela (1966), he made Lucía (1968), one of the most important films in Cuban, Latin American, and Caribbean cinema. Structured in three stories with female protagonists, Solás traces a historical line that begins in the Colony and the War of Independence of 1895, continues in the struggle against Gerardo Machado, and culminates in the Revolution of 1959.

The theme of women allowed for the conception of high-flying dramatic arguments, while also enabling the dissection of Cuban society in diachrony, but from similar angles. The three women, determined to carry out their own convictions, face prejudices and the difficulties of love. Each story is nuanced through photography, editing, and music, and at the same time offers cohesion and stylistic diversity.

Seventies
In 1972 he made Un día de noviembre, although its premiere took place six years later. This film was controversial, as it brought various political perspectives into the family sphere and addressed issues such as emigration and material scarcity; furthermore, it showed a protagonist who, after having been a member of the underground struggle against the government of Fulgencio Batista, reviewed his past and present purposes in the face of the possibility of dying from illness. The music, one of the most subtle in Cuban cinema, was composed by Leo Brouwer.

This is followed by a period of intense documentary production: Simparelé (1974), Nacer en Leningrado (1977), and Wifredo Lam (1979). During this time he also made Cantata de Chile (1975), a feature film about the Chilean people and their struggles, constructed as a choral work.

Eighties
In the eighties, Solás made several historical films. The first was Cecilia (1981–1982), a feature film in two parts, based on the novel Cecilia Valdés o La loma del Ángel by Cirilo Villaverde.

Cecilia received multiple criticisms for the free approach the director had taken to a classic work of Cuban literature; however, the historical setting and the cinematography by Livio Delgado, as well as the inclusion of Afro-Caribbean elements and reflection on nineteenth-century Cuban society, make it a significant work within Cuban cinematography.

A year later he directed Amada, in collaboration with Nelson Rodríguez, a renowned editor with whom he had worked before. The film is based on the novel La esfinge by Miguel de Carrión and tells the story of a married woman who must decide between passion for her young cousin and the prejudices of conservative society at the beginning of the Republic.

The thirties and forties frame the argument of his next film, Un hombre de éxito (1986), the first Cuban film nominated for an Oscar in the category of Best Foreign Film. Solás demonstrated with his work that it was possible to make high-quality visual cinema with few resources. The protagonist, a young simulator, ambitious and unscrupulous, undertakes a brilliant political and social career, without stopping to consider the cost of his enterprise. The film won the Grand Coral Prize at the VIII Festival of New Latin American Cinema.

In this decade Solás did not abandon documentary production, and Obateleo (1988) and Buendía (1989) were released under his direction, both about Cuban culture.

Nineties
In the early 90s, Humberto filmed El siglo de las luces, a film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Alejo Carpentier. It is a co-production between ICAIC, France, and Ukraine. It was initially conceived for a television series. It also had a cinema version, reduced to 120 minutes. It was the film chosen to inaugurate that year's International Festival of New Latin American Cinema. Both versions were exhibited in Cuba.

Cubanía in his works
After this series of historical films, Solás would return to work on contemporary reality. Miel para Oshún (2001) and Barrio Cuba (2005) are dramatic representations of various conflicts common to a good part of Cubans in the early twenty-first century.

Emigration, loneliness, filial reunion, love conflicts, support in syncretic religion serve as thematic axes for the characterization of the characters. The work of Humberto Solás is a relentless search for Cuban nationality, represented in his cinematography from various angles and periods, characters, and stories.

Filmography
Casablanca (Note for the Popular Encyclopedia series in co-direction) 1961
Minerva traduce el mar (Co-direction with Oscar Valdés. Doc. 15´) 1962
Variaciones (Co-direction with Héctor Veitía. Doc. 14´) 1962
El Retrato (Co-direction with Oscar Valdés. Fict. 15´) 1963
El acoso (Short. Fict. 27´) 1965
Manuela (Medium. Fict. 41´) 1966
Pequeña crónica (Doc. 11´) 1966
Lucía (Feature. Fict. 160´) 1968
Crear... dos... tres... (Doc. 8´) 1970
Un día de noviembre (Feature. Fict. 110´) 1972
Simparelé (Doc. 30´) 1974
Cantata de Chile (Feature. Fict. 119´) 1975
Nacer en Leningrado (Doc. 10´) 1977
Wifredo Lam (Doc. 45´) 1979
Cecilia (Feature. Fict. 1st part 147'. 2nd part 100') 1981
Amada (Feature. Fict. 105´) 1983
Un hombre de éxito (Feature. Fict. 116´) 1986
Obataleo (Doc. 11´) 1988
Buendía (Doc. 11´) 1989
El siglo de las luces (Feature. Fict. 120´) 1991
Miel para Oshún (Feature. Fict. 115´) 2001
Barrio Cuba (Feature. Fict. 100´) 2005
Adela (Short. Fict.) 2005

Awards and Recognition
National Cinema Prize, 2005.
International Award Benalmádena City. Spain, 2007

Manuela
Silver Card. Cuneo Film Festival. Italy. 1966
Annual Selection of Critics, Havana, Cuba. 1966
Diploma of Honor, Hispano-American Film Congress, 1966.
Grand Paoa Prize V Latin American Film Festival. Viña del Mar, Chile, 1967.

Lucía
1st. Gold Medal Prize. Moscow, USSR, 1968.
FIPRESCI Prize (International Federation of Film Critics) VI International Film Festival, 1968.
Honorable Mention. III Meeting of Ibero-American Cinema. Barcelona, Spain, 1968.
Annual Selection of Critics, Havana, Cuba, 1968.
Cup (ex - aequo) Central Committee of Sangkum. II International Film Festival. Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 1968.
Critic's Week. Cannes, 1969.
Selected among the 20 best films of the year I International Film Festival. Tokyo, Japan, 1970.
1st. Carabela Prize XV International Week of Religious Film and Human Values. Valladolid, Spain, 1970.
1st. Golden Globe Prize Film Festival of the Italian Cinemateca. Milan, Italy, 1970.
Diploma of Honor. Viennale. Vienna, Austria, 1970.
First Caracol Prize, Film Festival. Cultural Week Alcances. Cádiz, Spain, 1971.
Annual Critical Prize for best film. Circle of Art Critics. Santiago de Chile, 1971.
Selected for the best black and white cinematography of the year 1978. Dominican Circle of Film Critics. Santo Domingo, 1979.

Selected among the ten best films of Ibero-American cinema, by a survey among critics from Latin America, Spain, and Portugal, at the VII Ibero-American Film Festival in Huelva, Spain, 1981.

Simparelé
1st. Golden Shell Prize XXII International Film Festival. San Sebastián, Spain, 1974.
Bronze Medal, as jury prize XII International Short Film Competition. Barcelona, Spain, 1974.
Special Prize from the Organization for the Liberation of Palestine XVII International Festival of Documentary and Short Films. Leipzig, East Germany, 1974.

Cantata de Chile
Grand Crystal Globe Prize. XX International Film Festival. Karlovy Vary, Czechoslovakia, 1976.
Grand Golden Horn Prize. VI Santarem Film Festival, Portugal, 1976.
Jury Prize for Best Direction XVII International Film Festival of Cartagena, Colombia, 1977.
Lazo D'Oro Prize. Neorealist Cinema. Avellino Film Festival, Italy, 1977.
International Jury Prize Colón de Oro. Public Prize Colón de Oro. International Film Festival. Huelva, Spain, 1977.
Outstanding Film of the year. Annual Selection of BBC Critics. London, England, 1977.
Prize from the Organization for the Liberation of Palestine II Damascus Film Prize, Syria, 1981.

Wifredo Lam
Golden Colón Prize for best short film awarded by the public VIII Ibero-American Film Festival. Huelva, Spain, 1982.

Cecilia
Best Film. International Film Festival of Panama. Best Actress (Daysi Granados), International Film Festival of Panama, 1982.
Official Selection at Cannes. France, 1982.
Cuban Critics Prize for Television Series (best national production), Havana, Cuba, 1995.

Amada
Performance Prize for Eslinda Núñez (awarded by the public). IX International Ibero-American Film Festival, Huelva, Spain, 1983.
Caracol Prize for best cinematography. National Film, Radio and Television Festival. Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba. Havana, Cuba, 1984.
Prize for best female performance in cinema for Eslinda Núñez awarded by the Performing Arts Section. Havana, Cuba, 1984.

Un hombre de éxito
First Coral Prize at the VIII International Festival of New Latin American Cinema. Havana, Cuba, 1986.
Coral Prize for Art Direction at the VIII International Festival of New Latin American Cinema. Havana, Cuba, 1986.
Best Film Prize Indian Catalina de Oro International Film Festival. Cartagena, Colombia, 1987.
Silver Makhila. Iberian and Latin American Film Festival. Biarritz, France. 1987.
Prize for the body of work awarded by the Hermanos Saíz Brigade within the Caracol Festival of UNEAC, Havana, Cuba, 1993.

El siglo de las luces
Prize for Best Cinematography and Art Direction, Gramado International Film Festival, Brazil, 1993.
Abril Prize awarded by the UJC (Livio Delgado - cinematography), Havana, Cuba, 1993.
Pitirre Prize for Best Film at Cinemafest Festival, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1993.
Special Jury Mention. Ibero-American Film Festival, Huelva, Spain, 1993.
Cuban Critics Prize for Television Series (best national production) Havana, Cuba, 1993.

Horcón (Film Screenplay)
Coral Prize for best unpublished screenplay inspired by an idea by Rodrigo Gonçalves (Brazil). XX International Festival of New Latin American Cinema, Havana, Cuba, 1998.

Miel para Oshún
Official Selection of the Americas Festival. Montreal, Canada, 2001.
Official Selection of the Toronto Showcase. Toronto, Canada, 2001.
Paoa Prize for Best Supporting Actor awarded to Mario Limonta. Thirteenth Viña del Mar Film Festival, Chile. International Competition, 2001.
Public Prize. Seville Film Festival, Spain, 2001.
Candidate (among 8 films) for the Goya Prize for Best Spanish-Language Film of 2002. Spanish Film Academy, November, 2001.
Special Jury Mention for Fiction. 23 International Festival of New Latin American Cinema. Havana, Dec. 2001.
Nomination (4 finalists) for the XVI Goya Prize for Best Foreign Spanish-Language Film of 2001. Spanish Film Academy, Dec. 19, 2001.
International Showcase World Cinema. Sundance Film Festival. Park City, Utah, USA. 2002.
Grand Jury Prize in the fiction category, as best film of Latin American Cinema. III Independent Film Festival of Washington D.C., 2002.
Screening in the Closing Gala of the Chicago Latino Film Festival, 2002.
Award of The Gloria Prize to Humberto Solás for his entire film career. Opening of the Havana Film Festival of New York. 2002.
Nominated for the Ariel Prize in the category of Best Ibero-American Film. Mexico City. 2002.
Ariel Prize in the category of Best Ibero-American Film. XLIV Ariel Awards. Mexico City. 2002.
Grand Public Prize Los Angeles Latino Film Festival. 2002.
Honorable Mention as best leading actress for Isabel Santos. Lima Film Festival. 2002.

Barrio Cuba
Public Prize Plata Colón. Huelva Festival, Spain, 2005.
Special Mention to filmmaker Humberto Solás. Huelva Festival, Spain, 2005.
Special Jury Prize. 27 International Festival of New Latin American Cinema. Havana, Cuba, 2005.
Prize for Best Actress (ex-aequo) for Luisa María Jiménez. 27 International Festival of New Latin American Cinema. Havana, Cuba, 2005.
Prize for Best Film Poster. 27 International Festival of New Latin American Cinema. Havana, Cuba, 2005.
El Mégano Prize, awarded by the National Federation of Film Clubs. 27 International Festival of New Latin American Cinema. Havana, Cuba, 2005.
Recognition from Casa de las Américas. 27 International Festival of New Latin American Cinema. Havana, Cuba, 2005.

Reviews
The New York Times, Film Quarterly, El País, Le Monde, Cahier du Cinema, and several international media outlets have reflected the importance of his work.