He Who Hits First, Hits Twice

The films of Cuban Director Santiago Alvarez exist as a kind of fractured mirror on the last 40 years of American history – a subversive alternate history. In a film career that began only with the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959 and continued until his death in 1998, Alverez created 700 films.

Lacking formal training of any sort, Alvarez was appointed head of the fledgling Cuban Film Institute now legendary newsreel division, Noticerio ICAIC. Under his command for the next thirty years, the banal and utilitarian newsreel was transformed into a veritable laboratory of radical innovation.

The first disc in this Double-DVD set includes eight incredible films from Alvarez, including his legendary “Now!”, “79 Springtimes”, and “LBJ”. The second disc is Travis Wilkerson’s (An Injury to One) acclaimed documentary on Santiago Alvarez, “Accelerated Under-Development”, an unashamedly didactic, partisan portrait in its subject's own style: brash intertitles, involving music, stark images.

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