Tomás Gutiérrez Alea

Film director and screenwriter. One of the most prominent filmmakers in the history of Cuban and Latin American cinema. He wrote and directed more than twenty feature films, documentaries, and shorts, known for their influence in Cuba and Latin America.

He was born into a wealthy family with progressive ideology. He began working in cinema in 1948, filming humorous shorts. He was a founder of the Cultural Society Nuestro Tiempo, which brought together left-wing intellectuals, in 1950.

After graduating with a degree in Law from the University of Havana in 1951, he studied cinema at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome, graduating in 1953. He was significantly influenced by Italian neorealism, and filmed his first movie in Rome with his future Cuban colleague Julio García Espinosa, with whom he co-directed the documentary film El Mégano, a documentary about the lives of charcoal workers in the Zapata Swamp considered by critics to be the best of Cuban filmmaking in that decade, a film that was seized by the police of that era.

With the triumph of the Cuban Revolution commanded by Fidel Castro in 1959, Gutiérrez Alea, Espinosa, and other young filmmakers founded the Cuban Institute of Film Art and Industry (ICAIC). In 1959, he organized, along with other directors, the Film Section of the Cultural Department of the Rebel Army, where he began filming Esta tierra nuestra, the first documentary after the triumph of the Revolution.

As convinced supporters of the Revolution, the ICAIC was a collective of filmmakers who believed that film could be the most important modern art form and the best medium for spreading revolutionary thought among the masses.

The ICAIC focused primarily on documentaries and newsreels in its early years, but eventually dedicated itself to the production of narrative films, including in 1960 the ICAIC's first feature fiction film, Historias de la Revolución, with which he began a cinematic body of work that made him known throughout the world as one of the greats of Latin American cinema.

Though dedicated to feature fiction films, he would occasionally return to documentaries, as in Esta tierra nuestra (1959) and El arte del Tabaco (1974), not forgetting his collaboration with Santiago Álvarez in Muerte al invasor (1961).

In the sixties, he would also make films such as Las doce sillas, La muerte de un burócrata, and the classic Memorias del subdesarrollo, which would demonstrate his cinematic genius.

Other successful films in his filmography include: La última cena (1976), Los sobrevivientes (1978), and Fresa y Chocolate (1993), the latter with Juan Carlos Tabío and nominated for an Oscar.

With Tabío he also made his final film in 1995, Guantanamera.

Retrospectives of his work were offered in multiple cities in Europe, the Americas, and Asia. He gave lectures and seminars at cultural centers and research institutions in several countries. In 1989 he participated as an advisor in the filmmaking workshops at the Sundance Institute in the United States. He received numerous distinctions, including the National Culture Award and in 1988 he was granted the position of Associate Full Professor at the Superior Institute of Art (ISA). He wrote essays and articles published in national and foreign magazines and newspapers. He published his essay Dialectics of the Spectator in 1980. His films received numerous awards and distinctions worldwide.

Married to Cuban actress Mirta Ibarra.

Literary Criticism Award for:
Dialectics of the Spectator, 1982
Contradanzas y latigazos, 1983
Lezama Lima, the Innocent Culprit, 1988

He died at the age of 68 on April 16, 1996 and was buried in Colón Cemetery in Havana.

Filmography
Little Red Riding Hood (1947) - Short
The Fakir (1947) - Short
An Everyday Confusion (1950) - Short, based on the novel by Franz Kafka
Il sogno di Giovanni Bassain (1953)
El Mégano (1955) - Documentary film, in collaboration with Julio García Espinosa, Alfredo Guevara, José Massip
The Taking of Havana by the English (1958) - Documentary film
This Land of Ours (1959) - Documentary film
Stories of the Revolution (1960) - Fiction, 81 minutes
General Assembly (1960) - Documentary film, 14 minutes
Death to the Invader (1961) - Documentary film, 16 minutes
The Twelve Chairs (1962) - Fiction, 97 minutes
Cumbite (1964) - Fiction, 82 minutes
The Death of a Bureaucrat (1966) - Fiction, 85 minutes
Memories of Underdevelopment (1968) - Fiction, 97 minutes
A Cuban Battle Against the Demons (1971) - Fiction, 130 minutes
The Art of Tobacco (1974) - Documentary film, 7 minutes
The Last Supper (1976) - Fiction, 120 minutes
In a Certain Way (1977)
The Survivors (1979) - Fiction, 130 minutes
Up to a Point (1983) - Fiction, 88 minutes
Letters from the Park (1988) - Fiction, 88 minutes
With You in the Distance (1991) - Fiction, 27 minutes
Strawberry and Chocolate (1993) - co-directed with Juan Carlos Tabío, Fiction, 110 minutes
Guantanamera (1995) - co-directed with Juan Carlos Tabío, Fiction, 101 minutes

Chronology
1928: Born in Havana on December 11.
1943: Begins music studies, which he continues until 1948.
1946: Enrolls in Law at the University of Havana, responding to family expectations.
1947: Films two humorous short films in 8 mm: Little Red Riding Hood and The Fakir.
1948: He began working in cinema by filming humorous shorts and, at the request of the Popular Socialist Party [PSP], an unfinished documentary on the Peace Movement, a social demand of great importance at the time.
1949: Participates as a cameraman in the filming of an unfinished documentary on May First, also sponsored by the PSP.
1950: Collaborates in the university magazine Saeta. He is president of the Peace Committee of the School of Law and secretary of the Organizing Committee of the III World Festival of Youth and Students held in Berlin. That year he participates in the founding of the Cultural Society Nuestro Tiempo, which brings together left-wing intellectuals and films in 8 mm, with actors, the humorous short An Everyday Confusion, based on the homonymous story by Franz Kafka.
1951: He earns his law degree, responding to his father's wishes, but moves to Rome to study film directing at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia as his vocation demanded.
1952: He is part of a group of Latin Americans residing in Italy who founded the Latin American Association and its bulletin, Voci dell'América Latina.
1953: He completes his studies with the work Il sogno di Giovanni Bassain (storyline, screenplay collaboration, and assistant director), in 35 mm. Upon returning to Cuba he participates in the film section and is part of the directing committee of the society magazine Nuestro Tiempo.
1954: He gives the lecture "Realities of Cinema in Cuba" at the society Nuestro Tiempo. He collaborates in the film section of that cultural society.
1955: He collaborated with Julio García Espinosa in directing the documentary medium-length film El Mégano, in 16 mm, about the lives of charcoal workers in the Zapata Swamp. The film was seized by the police.
1956: He begins directing shorts for Cine-Revista (small documentaries and humorous and advertising reports), in 35 mm.
1958: He films for Cine-Revista the documentary The Taking of Havana by the English, based on 17th century engravings. He publishes humorous drawings in the magazines Actualidad Criolla and Carteles.
1959: He organizes, with García Espinosa, the film section of the Cultural Department of the Rebel Army, triumphant in the insurrectional struggle commanded by Fidel Castro against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. He begins filming This Land of Ours (19'), the first documentary made after the revolutionary triumph on the conditions of rural life prior to Agrarian Reform. He participates in the founding of the Cuban Institute of Film Art and Industry (ICAIC), presided over by Alfredo Guevara Valdés. He is part of its board of directors until 1961. He publishes comic strips in the weekly El Pitirre.
1960: He makes his first feature fiction film, Stories of the Revolution (81') and the documentary General Assembly (14'), about the popular demonstration that led to the First Declaration of Havana. He is a delegate to the First National Congress of Writers and Artists and elected founding member of the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC) and its official publication, the monthly magazine La Gaceta de Cuba.
1961: He participates as a war correspondent in the Battle of Playa Girón (Bay of Pigs). He makes for the ICAIC Latin American Newsreel [directed by Santiago Álvarez] the documentary Death to the Invader (15').
1962: He shoots the feature fiction film The Twelve Chairs (90'). He gives a series of lectures about Billy Wilder at the Palace of Fine Arts (Havana).
1963: He is part of the delegation to the First Week of Cuban Cinema in Czechoslovakia. He presents The Twelve Chairs at its premiere in Moscow. He publishes the screenplay for that film, written in collaboration with Ugo Ulive (ICAIC Editions, Havana).
1964: He films the feature fiction film Cumbite (82'), a free adaptation of a novel by Jacques Roumain.
1966: He completes the feature fiction film The Death of a Bureaucrat (85'). He presents it at the XV International Film Festival of Karlovy Vary (Czechoslovakia), and at the Pesaro Festival (Italy).
1968: He completes the filming of the feature fiction film Memories of Underdevelopment (97'), based on the homonymous novel by Edmundo Desnoes. He presents it at the Karlovy Vary and Pesaro festivals.
1971: He shoots A Cuban Battle Against the Demons (130'), based on the homonymous book by Fernando Ortiz.
1972: He presents A Cuban Battle Against the Demons at the Karlovy Vary and Pesaro festivals.
1973: He publishes the screenplay for Memories of Underdevelopment in New York. He is part of the Cuban delegation attending the Pesaro Festival.
1974: He collaborates on the drama of the feature fiction films El otro Francisco, by Sergio Giral, and In a Certain Way, by Sara Gómez. He directs the documentary short The Art of Tobacco (7'). He is part of Cuban delegations at the Pesaro Festival and the First Week of Cuban Cinema in Caracas, Venezuela.
1975: He travels as a representative of Cuban cinema to Cairo, Aden and Baghdad.
1976: He finishes filming the feature fiction film The Last Supper (120'). He presents it at the Pesaro Festival.
1977: He is part of the delegation of the First Week of Cuban Cinema held in Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia. He publishes in Calcutta (India) the Bengali translation of the screenplay for Memories of Underdevelopment.
1978: He completes the filming of the feature fiction film The Survivors (130') based on a story by José Benítez Rojo, and, in collaboration, the documentary The Path of Myrrh and Frankincense (17'), about the Yemenite revolution.
1979: He is a delegate to the Second Congress of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba. He attends retrospectives of his work in Mexico City and New York and also a tribute dedicated to him by the International San Francisco Film Festival, California. He participates in a lecture series organized by the Center for Cuban Studies in New York. He participates in the film festivals in Berlin (West) and Cannes, and in the first Week of Cuban Cinema held in Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa (Canada).
1980: He works on the writing of his book of essays Dialectics of the Spectator. He participates in the International Film Festival of Bangalore (India) with the film The Survivors.
1981: His book Dialectics of the Spectator is published in Italy (Marsilio Editore, Venice). He participates in the first Week of Cuban Cinema in Sydney (Australia). He presides over the jury of the Third National Film Competition sponsored by UNEAC. He receives the "Award for National Culture," granted by the Cuban Ministry of Culture.
1982: He publishes the Cuban edition of his book Dialectics of the Spectator (UNEAC). He participates in the IV International Festival of New Latin American Cinema (Havana) with the presentation "Film Dramaturgy and Reality". He receives the Commemorative Medal "Victory of Playa Girón," granted by the Council of State of the Republic of Cuba, and the medal "Combatant of Clandestine Struggle". He receives from the Union of Culture Workers the "Raúl Gómez García Distinction" for his twenty-five years of activity in the cultural sector.
1983: He completes the filming of the feature fiction film Up to a Point (68'). He is part of the jury of the IX International Film Festival of New Delhi (India). He participates in a lecture series on Third World Cinema at Hunter College in New York. He travels presenting a cycle of Cuban cinema to Managua (Nicaragua) and San Juan (Puerto Rico). He participates in the First World Assembly of Film Directors held in Funchal, Madeira (Portugal). His book of essays Dialectics of the Spectator appears in Mexico. This work wins the Criticism Award in Cuba, which is given to the most outstanding books of the year.
1984: He participates in the XXIX International Berlin Film Festival and the XXVII International San Francisco Film Festival, with his film Up to a Point. A retrospective of his work is held in New Delhi and Trivandrum (India). The Portuguese translation of Dialectics of the Spectator appears (Sao Paolo, Brazil).
1985: Retrospective of his work coinciding with the premiere of Up to a Point in New York. The book Tomás Gutiérrez Alea: The Films I Did Not Make by Silvia Oroz is published in Rio de Janeiro.
1986: He is denied a visa to attend an international meeting of filmmakers and film critics at Duke University, North Carolina, United States.
1987: He receives the Replica of the Machete of General Máximo Gómez, a distinction granted by the Ministry of Revolutionary Armed Forces (MINFAR) of Cuba. He assumes the direction of one of the creative groups of ICAIC. The compilatory book Alea: A Critical Retrospective by Ambrosio Fornet appears in Havana.
1988: He films the feature fiction film Letters from the Park (85'), based on a screenplay by Gabriel García Márquez. He obtains the position of Associate Full Professor at the Superior Institute of Art of Cuba. He is again denied entry visa to the United States to serve as a jury member at the First Film Festival of San Juan (Puerto Rico) and at the Denver Festival (Colorado). He receives the "Félix Varela Order of the First Degree," the highest cultural distinction granted by the Council of State of Cuba. The television series Difficult Loves—which includes Letters from the Park—is presented at the International Film Week in Valladolid. A retrospective of his work is displayed at the International School of Film and Television of San Antonio de los Baños (Cuba). An English edition of Dialectics of the Spectator (The Viewer's Dialectic) is published by the Cuban publisher José Martí.
1989: He is granted a U.S. visa to attend the United States Film Festival in Park City (Utah) with his film Letters from the Park. He reads the presentation "The True Face of Caliban." He advises the Filmmaking Workshops of the Sundance Institute (Utah). He attends a retrospective of his work at the British Film Institute, London.
1990: He presents a sample of Cuban cinema in several cities in Germany. He participates in debates promoted by ICAIC about the film Alice in the Land of Wonders by Daniel Díaz Torres and in the project to merge the Cuban Film Institute with the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television (ICRT), which ultimately does not take place. Rutgers University Press publishes in the United States the screenplay for Memories of Underdevelopment with an introduction by English critic Michael Chanan. He attends as a guest the San Juan Film Festival (Puerto Rico).
1991: He directs in Mexico the fiction short film With You in the Distance (27'), based on the homonymous work by Gabriel García Márquez. He attends as guest and honoree film showings in Guadalajara (Mexico), Albany (United States), Huesca and Valladolid (Spain) and Toronto (Canada). The Cuban Film Library presents a retrospective of his work.
1992: He attends meetings at the festivals in Niteroi (Brazil) and San Sebastián (Spain).
1993: He obtains a grant from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. He delivers the opening speech of the eleventh annual meeting of the Association for Third World Studies of Pacific Lutheran University (Tacoma, Washington), titled "Another Cinema, Another World, Another Society". He completes, in collaboration with Juan Carlos Tabío, the feature fiction film Strawberry and Chocolate (108), which premieres at the XV International Festival of New Latin American Cinema, Havana.
1994: He presents Strawberry and Chocolate at the Berlin International Film Festival and a retrospective of his work in Spain, organized by the House of America and the Spanish Film Library. The Canary Islands Film Library publishes the volume Tomás Gutiérrez Alea: Poetry and Revolution. A similar retrospective is presented in Toulouse, France. He attends the tribute dedicated to him by the Huesca Film Festival, Spain, where they publish the work Tomás Gutiérrez Alea by José Antonio Évora.
1995: He completes, in collaboration with Juan Carlos Tabío, the feature fiction film Guantanamera (90'). He attends its premiere in Madrid. The film is also presented at the Venice International Festival. He attends in Hollywood the Academy Awards ceremony, as his film Strawberry and Chocolate was nominated in the Best Foreign Language Film category. Already very ill, the Lincoln Center in New York organizes a tribute showing of his work and intellectual trajectory that, following his wishes, is inaugurated by Cuban writer Reynaldo González, director of the Cuban Film Library.
1996: He dies in Havana on April 16.

Awards and Honors

This Land of Ours

International Jury Commendation to the Cuban Film Movement. Oberhausen Festival, West Germany, 1961.
Diploma of Honor. XIII International Film Festival. Locarno, Switzerland, 1960.
Certificate of Merit. International Agricultural Film Festival. West Berlin, 1960.

Stories of the Revolution

Diploma of Honor. I International Film Festival. Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 1968.
Special Prize. International Film Festival. Melbourne, Australia, 1962.
Special Mention. III Review of Latin American Cinema. Sestri Levante, Italy, 1962.
Prize from the Union of Soviet Writers. II International Film Festival. Moscow, USSR, 1961.

Death to the Invader

Prize for Best Program of Cuban Films. Leipzig Festival, East Germany, 1961.
Notable Film of the Year (shared). V London Film Festival, England, 1961.

The Twelve Chairs

Honorary Diploma Union of Film Workers of the USSR, III International Film Festival. Moscow, USSR, 1963.

Cumbite

Silver Medal (special invitation), International Film Festival, Cork, Ireland, 1966.

The Death of a Bureaucrat

Selected for Best Credits of 1978.
Dominican Circle of Film Critics. Santo Domingo, 1979.
Special Jury Prize, XV International Film Festival, Czechoslovakia, Karlovy Vary, 1966.

Memories of Underdevelopment

Charles Chaplin Prize, Group of Young Critics. New York, USA, 1973.
Rosenthal Prize, National Association of Film Critics of the USA. New York, USA, 1973.
Selection Diploma, London Festival, England, 1971.
Warsaw Siren Prize, Film Critics Club. Warsaw, Poland, 1970.
FICC Prize. Festival of Youth, France, Festival of Young Cinema Hyeres, 1970.
FICC Prize (International Federation of Film Clubs), Czechoslovakia, Karlovy Vary.
FIPRESCI Prize (International Federation of Film Press), XVI International Film Festival, Czechoslovakia, Karlovy Vary.
Extraordinary Jury Prize for Authors, XVI International Film Festival, Czechoslovakia, Karlovy Vary, 1968.
Second Prize at Film Festival, Cultural Week Achievements. Cadiz, Spain, 1975.

Strawberry and Chocolate

First Coral Prize. XV International Festival of New Latin American Cinema, Havana, Cuba, 1993.
Prize for Best Unpublished Screenplay. XIV International Festival of New Latin American Cinema, Havana, Cuba, 1992.
ONDAS Prize. Radio Barcelona, Spain, 1994.
First Shared Kikito Prize for Acting (Jorge Perugorría and Vladimir Cruz).
Audience Prize and Critic Prize. Latin American Film Festival of Paso del Norte, Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, 1994.
Prize for Best Foreign Film by the Association of Film Critics of New York.
Goya Prize for Best Foreign Spanish-Language Film awarded by the Academy of Film Arts and Sciences of Spain, 1995.
Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences of Hollywood, United States, 1995.
Prize for Best Film, Best Lead Performance (Jorge Perugorría), Best Supporting Performance (Vladimir Cruz) and Best Direction awarded by the Association of Film Critics of Los Angeles, California, USA, 1995.
Audience Prize, Critic Prize, Kikito Prize for Best Film,
Female Acting Prize (Mirta Ibarra). Gramado Festival, Brazil, 1994.
Coral Prize for Male Acting (Jorge Perugorría). XV International Festival of New Latin American Cinema, Havana, Cuba, 1993.
Coral Prize for Supporting Female Acting (Mirta Ibarra). XV International Festival of New Latin American Cinema, Havana, Cuba, 1993.
Coral Prize for Direction. XV International Festival of New Latin American Cinema, Havana, Cuba, 1993.
Silver Bear for Best Film, First Audience Prize, First Special Jury Mention. Berlin Film Festival, 1994.
Grand Audience Prize. II Festival Paso del Norte, Mexico, 1994.
Prize for Best Film Exhibited in Brazil. Survey Newspaper O'Globo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1994.
Panambi Prizes for Best Latin American Film, Best Screenplay, Best Acting Work (Jorge Perugorría and Vladimir Cruz), Best Soundtrack and Audience Prize. 5th Festival of Asunción, Paraguay, 1994.
Caracol Prize for Best Screenplay (Senel Paz). Film, Radio and TV Festival of UNEAC, Havana, 1994.
Significant Film of the Year. Annual Selection of Critics, Havana, Cuba, 1994.
Caracol Prize for Performing Arts to Mirta Ibarra, Jorge Perugorría and Vladimir Cruz. Film, Radio and TV Festival of UNEAC, Havana, 1994.
Significant Film of the Year. Annual Selection of Critics, Havana, Cuba, 1993.
FIPRESCI Prize. XV International Festival of New Latin American Cinema, Havana, Cuba, 1993.
OCIC Prize. XV International Festival of New Latin American Cinema, Havana, Cuba, 1993.
Prize from the Union of Arci Nova Film Clubs (UCCA). XV International Festival of New Latin American Cinema, Havana, Cuba, 1993.
Popularity Prize. XV International Festival of New Latin American Cinema, Havana, Cuba, 1993.
Prize from El Caimán Barbudo. XV International Festival of New Latin American Cinema, Havana, Cuba, 1993.
Prize from Radio Havana Cuba. XV International Festival of New Latin American Cinema, Havana, Cuba, 1993.

Guantanamera

Kikito Prize for Best Film, Critic Prize, Prize for Male Acting (Carlos Cruz). XXIV Festival of Gramado, Brazil, 1996.
Prize for Best Lead Actor (Jorge Perugorría). Performing Arts Section of UNEAC. XII National UNEAC Film, Radio and TV Festival, Havana, 1995.
Popularity Prize. XIII Latin American Film Festival, Chicago, USA, 1997.
*Special Jury Prize Catalina de Oro, Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, 1996.
Jury Prize. VIII International Film Festival, Viña del Mar, Chile.
Ondas Prize for Best Film, awarded by TVE, Madrid, Spain, 1995.
Grand Southwest Audience Prize. International Film Festival and Cultures of Latin America, Biarritz, France, 1995.
Second Coral Prize. XVII International Festival of New Latin American Cinema, Havana, 1995.