Diana Montero, young Cuban documentary filmmaker, dies in Miami

October 15, 2020

Diana Montero, graduate of the Documentary Chair at the International Film School of San Antonio de los Baños in the 2011-2014 generation, passed away in Miami

The film school community bids a sorrowful farewell to one of its prestigious filmmakers. The young documentalist Diana Montero who died of lung cancer.

She left a filmography that pointed to an interest in the reality of rural areas and, particularly, of women, being very close to her origins and her family. She was, without a doubt, a strong voice for the future of Cuban and Latin American cinema at 34 years old.

Her short documentary 'Abecé', her one-to-one exercise, received a special mention from the jury at the ICAIC Young Showcase, competed at the Poor Film Festival of Gibara 2014 and won the award for Best Short Film at the Trinidad and Tobago International Film Festival. Her documentary thesis, 'Milagrosa' also traveled through festivals throughout Latin America and Europe; and her debut feature project, 'Nico', was the winner of the Grand Prize of the 7th Edition of Nuevas Miradas in 2013.

She was an excellent student at the EICTV and will always be remembered by the community; as well as her cinema, which is already part of the history of this utopia.

In a statement released by the International Film School it can be read: "The eictv community says goodbye today with sorrow to one of our filmmakers." "She left a filmography that pointed to an interest in the reality of rural areas and, particularly, of women, being very close to her origins and her family. She was, without a doubt, a strong voice for the future of Cuban and Latin American cinema," the text noted.

Diana Montero graduated in Art History from La Universidad de La Habana and directed other documentaries such as Miracle Worker (2014), ABC's (2014), Just Like Cats (2013) and He is you (2012).

She presented her works in numerous festivals in the international film circuit and always emphasized her interest in documenting the daily life of people and rural areas. "I like contact with people, fieldwork and reflecting that type of work in the media, and that was, for me, in photography or audiovisual. What I did then was integrate all the tools I had learned, both in still photography and in Art History, and I used documentary as the most suitable medium, because it mixes everything: image, field research, and in the end I can give my point of view," she expressed in 2014 in an interview with IPS.

Her documentary ABCs was one of the most awarded of her career by obtaining awards at the Bilbao film festival, in Moscow, Uruguay and at the Gibara film festival.