Santa Fé (Argentina), 1925

By Afrânio Mendes Catani

An important figure in the new Latin American cinema, he was a founder of film schools, including the pioneering one at the Universidad del Litoral in Santa Fé, his hometown, and the one in San Antonio de los Baños, Cuba. A documentary filmmaker par excellence, he began by making short films and gained prominence with the socially focused medium-length film Tiré Dié (1960). Dividing his work between Argentina, Italy, and other countries, he produced several feature films, such as the neorealist Los inundados (1961). He continued in fiction with Org (1978). He also dedicated himself to feature documentaries, producing Rafael Alberti, un retrato del poeta (1983) and Mi hijo el Che – Un retrato de familia de Don Ernesto Guevara (1985). After a brief return to fiction with Un señor muy viejo con unas alas enormes (1988), he focused on documentaries with Enredando sombras (1998). In 1999, he filmed El siglo del viento and Che: muerte de la utopía. He is also dedicated to the visual arts and, since the mid-1990s, has worked in German television.