The International Santiago Álvarez in Memoriam Documentary Festival will be held in eastern Santiago de Cuba from March 6 through 11th with the attendance of 7 countries. 

At a news conference, Lázara Herrera, director of the Cuban Film Institute’s Santiago Álvarez office, said that the festival is scheduled to be held at a beautiful and renovated city with the support of the province’s government.  Documentaries from Cuba, Germany, Argentina, the United States, Spain, Mexico, Peru –the guest country- and other nations are competing at the documentary film gathering.

The eastern city’s neighborhoods will have documentary, film screenings and discussion, according to Herrera, who added that the festival will pay homage to Iván Nápoles, Miriam Talavera, Jerónimo Labrada and Daniel Diez, filmmakers closely linked to the work of Santiago Alvarez, considered one of the world’s best documentary makers.

Herrera, who is Álvarez’s widow, said that the response of documentary makers from all over the world has been one of her greatest satisfactions as festival organizer in its 15 editions. She added, however, that the event’s main challenge is to again make an annual festival, because Cuba has one of the greatest documentary makers in the world: Santiago Álvarez, she concluded.