Santiago Alvarez Documentary Festival kicks off in Cuba

SANTIAGO DE CUBA, Cuba, Mar 7 (acn) The 15th Santiago Álvarez in Memoriam International Documentary Festival was inaugurated in this city with more than thirty audiovisuals from 25 countries and the assistance of renowned filmmakers.

The opening ceremony included the theoretical seminar, which will be held every day at Casa Dranguet, Lazara Herrera, president of the event, told press.
The attendees also paid tribute to Commander in Chief Fidel Castro before the stone that keeps his ashes at Santa Ifigenia cemetery, in this Cuban eastern city.
Herrera commented that the tribute to the leader during the festival will include the sample of documentaries about his life and the Cuban revolutionary process that were made by Alvarez, including ¨Mi Hermano Fidel¨ and ¨La Guerra Necesaria.¨
She pointed out that, out of competition, the festival will host the screening of Peruvian films, as well as newsreels on the Andean nation with also made by Álvarez, conferences and several special presentations in neighborhoods of the city like Chicharrones, where there will be an exchange with children.
Special moment will be the recognition of Ivan Napoles, Miriam Talavera, Jerónimo Labrada and Daniel Diez, faithful collaborators of Álvarez and architects like him of great works of Cuban and Latin American documentary world, said Herrera.
Films from Cuba, the United States, Spain, Germany, Mexico, Venezuela, Argentina, Peru, guest country, and other nations compete in the event, which evokes the creator of the ICAIC Latin American Newsreel, the documentary ¨Hanoi Martes 13¨ and the short film ¨Now, ¨considered antecedent of the current video clip.