National Film Award Laureate and founder of the Cuban Film Institute –ICAIC-, José Massip, passed away in Havana over the weekend at the age of 88.

Massip was part of the avant-garde intellectuals and filmmakers who worked on the establishment of a revolutionary national cinema as of 1959. He received the National Film Award in 2012 in recognition of his work as a critic, pedagogue and essayist and his contributions to the Cuban film industry.

Director of emblematic films, such as Pages of José Martí’s Dairy (1971) and Baraguá (1986), Massip is considered an important figure on the island’s cultural scene. He cooperated with Julio García Espinosa, Alfredo Guevara and Tomás Gutiérrez Alea in the shooting of the documentary El Mégano, considered the piece of work that started revolutionary cinema on the island in the late 1950’s.