Julio García Espinosa

Founder of the Cuban Institute of Film Art and Industry (ICAIC), an organization he directed for eleven years. Co-director of the documentary El Mégano (1956). He is an essential figure in Cuban cinematography of all time. He has been director of the International Film School located in San Antonio de los Baños.

He was a Cuban filmmaker. Founder of the ICAIC and mentor to several generations of filmmakers. His essays constitute a turning point in the history of Cuban and Latin American cinema. Parallel to his work as a leader and theorist, he developed a filmography with significant documentaries and fiction feature films, which placed him as one of the most important figures in Cuban culture. In 2004 he received the National Film Prize.

Film director, documentarian, and Cuban screenwriter. He directed fourteen films between 1955 and 1998. His 1967 film Aventuras de Juan Quin Quin participated in the Fifth Moscow International Film Festival.

From his youth he worked in the world of entertainment, first as a director and theatrical actor in the Youth Company Renacimiento and later as a director of radio programs at the CMQ station. Between 1950 and 1951 he directed the Cultural Missions of the Department of Culture that brought artistic manifestations such as theater, music, film, and dance to the population in a truck-trailer converted incidentally into a stage.

From 1951 to 1953 he studied film direction at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografía in Rome, where he graduated as a film director.

At a young age he works as a director and actor of vernacular theater in the Youth Company Renacimiento where he formed friendships with Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, Gabriel García Márquez, and Fernando Birri. There he came into contact with Italian neorealism and incorporated the poetics of directors such as Roberto Rossellini, Luchino Visconti, and Vittorio De Sica. That heritage would later emerge in his documentary creation and in his fiction films, always endowed with realism and marked by the examination of Cuban identity and culture. Subsequently he directs and writes radio programs. He participates in the creation of the notable group Teatro Estudio. He was a member of the Cultural Society Nuestro Tiempo, in which he chaired its Cinema Section.

In 1955 he had his first film experience when he directed the short film El Mégano with the collaboration of Tomás Gutiérrez Alea and where Alfredo Guevara, José Massip, and photographer Jorge Haydú also participated. This film is considered the predecessor of the new Cuban cinema.

In 1959 he is appointed head of the cinema section of the Department of Culture of the Rebel Army where the first two documentaries of the Revolution were made: Esta tierra nuestra and La vivienda. Given his experience in filmmaking, he was among the first to film fiction feature films after the founding of ICAIC in 1959: Cuba baila (1960) and El joven rebelde (1961), with a script by Cesare Zavattini.

His third feature film, Aventuras de Juan Quinquín (1967), based on the novel Juan Quinquín en Pueblo Mocho by Samuel Feijóo, is considered a classic film of Cuban cinematography. It narrates the story of a resourceful peasant and his companion in misadventures, who try to overcome the environment in which they live. Juan Quinquín is an ingenious character who goes through various trades, from altar boy to circus actor. With this film García Espinosa demonstrated his ability for humor, parody, and a playful vision of the immediate pre-revolutionary past.

In the seventies García Espinosa devoted himself mainly to making documentaries: Tercer Mundo, Tercera Guerra Mundial (1970), with the collaboration of writer Roberto Fernández Retamar, explored the Vietnam War and the crimes committed by the United States in that context. This was followed by La sexta parte del mundo (1977), a tribute from Cuban filmmakers to the sixtieth anniversary of the October Revolution, where he served as general director. The following year he made Son o no son—a kind of cinematographic essay where the difficulties of preparing a musical show are exposed with humor—filmed at the Tropicana cabaret with renowned musicians and with the popular actor Enrique Arredondo.

He is one of the founders of the Cuban Institute of Film Art and Industry (ICAIC), in which he has held the positions of Director of Artistic Programming, First Vice President, and President of the institution until 1991. Vice Minister of Culture between 1982 and 1990, during which time he directed the International Festival of New Latin American Cinema.

In 1989 he made La inútil muerte de mi socio Manolo, based on the theatrical piece Mi socio Manolo by Eugenio Hernández Espinosa. Two friends reunite and maintain a long conversation about their lives, which ends in an unusual and absurd excess of violence. The film draws attention for its economy of resources, the concentration in the work of the actors, and the theatrical design of the space.

His most important film in the nineties was Reina y Rey (1994), a sensitive drama about old age and loneliness in a world that becomes colder every day. In the midst of the economic crisis of those years, the conflict of the protagonist develops, whose small universe includes a dog, her only life companion. The film pays homage to Italian neorealism and to Umberto D. by Vittorio de Sica, while presenting the problems of Cuban society at that time. It was a multi-awarded film internationally, revealing the social contradictions of Cuba in the nineties, as well as the particular conflict of an ordinary woman trying to safeguard her dignity in the midst of economic crisis.

His theoretical works have been widely disseminated in Cuba and abroad; particularly outstanding among them is Por un cine imperfecto (1969). Parallel to his administrative duties, he makes documentary and fiction films. He is a Founding Member of the Committee of Filmmakers of Latin America and a member of the Academy of Spanish Cinema.

He has received the most important distinctions of Cuban culture: Distinction of National Culture (1981); Alejo Carpentier Medal (1982); Félix Varela Order (1984), and the National Film Prize in 2004. He is Doctor Honoris Causa by the Superior Institute of Art of Cuba and by Concordia University of Canada. He was director of the International School of Film and Television of San Antonio de los Baños, Cuba.

Filmography
As director
El Mégano (Doc.) 1955
Sexto Aniversario (Doc.) 1959
La Vivienda (Doc.) 1959
Cuba baila (FF. Fict. 81´) 1959
Patria o Muerte (Doc. 26´) 1959
Un año de libertad (Doc. 27´) 1959
El joven rebelde (FF. Fict. 83´) 1961
Aventuras de Juan Quinquín (FF. Fict. 110´) 1961
Tercer mundo, tercera guerra mundial (Doc. 90´) 1970
La sexta parte del mundo (Doc. 90´) 1977
Son... o no son (Screenplay and Direction. Doc.) 1980
La inútil muerte de mi socio Manolo (Screenplay and Direction. FF. Fict.) 1989
El plano (Screenplay and Direction. FF. Fict.) 1993
Reina y Rey (Screenplay and Direction. FF. Fict. 100´) 1994
As screenwriter
Esta tierra nuestra (Doc) 1960
Cuba 58 (New Year) (Doc.) 1962
Un día en el solar (Doc) 1963
Un huésped (Doc) 1967
Lucía (FF Fict) 1968
La primera carga al machete (FF Fict) 1969
Los días del agua (FF Fict) 1971
Viva la República (Doc) 1972
No tenemos derecho a esperar (Doc) 1972
Introducción a Chile (Doc) 1972
Girón (Doc) 1972
Diques de Viet Nam (Doc) 1973
Ustedes tienen la palabra (FF ficc) 1973
XX años 1973
El programa del Moncada. 1973
El extraño caso de Rachel K (FF Fict.) 1973
El otro Francisco (FF Fict) 1974
Operación Triángulo (Doc) 1974
De cierta manera (FF Fict) 1974
Cuadra por cuadra (Doc) 1974
Con las mujeres cubanas (Doc) 1974
Mella (FF Fict) 1975
Patty Candela (FF ficc) 1976
La guerra de Angola (Doc) 1976
La Batalla de Jigüe (Doc) 1976
Enredando sombras (Doc.) 1998
Published Works
1969 - Por un cine imperfecto.
1971 - En busca del cine perdido.
1973 - ¡Intelectuales y artistas del mundo entero, desuníos!
1975 - Una imagen recorre el mundo.
1976 - Sobre las escuelas de cine y televisión.
1976 - Los cuatro medios de comunicación son tres: cine y TV.
1984 - ¿Cine nacional: decadencia o muerte?
1984 - ¿Debe ser rentable la Cultura?
1988 - El destino del cine.
1988 - La doble moral del cine.
1989 - El cine popular a veces da señales de vida.
1993 - La telenovela o el chisme elevado a categoría de Arte Dramático.
1993 - Por un cine imperfecto. (25 años después).
1993 - La electrónica o la cuarta edad del cine.
1994 - Un largo camino hacia la luz.
1994 - De la salsa a la rumba.
1995 - ¿Verdad o belleza? (A los cuarenta años de El Mégano).
1996 - La vida como un camino de atajos. (Con motivo de los cien años de cine en América Latina).
1996 - Recuerdos de Zavattini.
1998 - Para verte mejor.
1998 - Fama vs. talento.
1999 - Nuevas tecnologías, posibles alternativas.
1999 - Cibernautas de todos los países periféricos, ¡uníos!
2000 - Oh, Sole mío!
2000 - La comedia cubana (una historia personal).
2001 - El cine cubano o los caminos de la modernidad.
2001 - ¡Abajo los géneros! ¡Vivan los géneros!
2002 - Lo nuevo en el Nuevo cine latinoamericano.
2002 - Cultura y vida cotidiana.
2003 - El día en que el pensamiento se detuvo.
2004 - El fin de la historia.
Awards and Honors
Distinction for National Culture (1981)
Alejo Carpentier Medal (1982)
Félix Varela Order (1984)
National Film Prize (2004)
Doctor Honoris Causa by the Superior Institute of Art of Cuba
Doctor Honoris Causa by Concordia University of Canada