Mario Naito, one of the most respected figures in film criticism and research in Cuba, died this Sunday in Havana at the age of 76.
Cataloged as “one of our film encyclopedias” by his colleague Juan Antonio García Borrero, Naito died “as a result of complications associated with dengue fever,” as revealed the Cuban Association of the Cinematographic Press (ACPC).
In its farewell note, said entity highlighted Naito as one of its founding members and its president between 2006 and 2023, a position in which – the ACPC points out – “he demonstrated leadership capacity, closeness to members and a permanent vocation for service.”
Likewise, his work is highlighted in numerous media outlets—including The World, Granma, Cuban Cinema and Revolution and Culture—, in which he published articles and film reviews, as well as his work as a compiler of important books on Cuban cinema.
Meanwhile, the site Cubacineofficial platform of the ICAIC, highlights it as “a critic and researcher of high caliber, and a fervent student of our seventh art,” while highlighting his “essential” work at the Cuban Cinematheque.
For its part, the Assembly of Cuban Filmmakers, remember Naito as a “patient, methodical, professional man, with an enviable memory” who dedicated “a good part of his life to cinema from its theoretical and historiographical perspective.”
In addition to evoking his persistent and valuable work in the Cinemateca de Cuba and the ACPC, he recognizes that “there must be not a few theses, books, essays and research carried out on Cuban cinema, inside or outside the country, that owe their foundations to him.”
“Naito was always there to offer, to remember,” notes the Assembly, which considers that “far from stridency, provocation or social performance,” the late critic and researcher “knew how to find his place in Cuban Cinema.”
Deserving of the Distinction for National Culture, Mario Naito collaborated for three decades with the “Cine Paraíso” program on the CMBF station, and was also a member of the editorial team of the Dictionary of Ibero-American Cinema: Spain, Portugal and America2011.
Among the volumes of which he was the compiler are two volumes of the series Cuban Cinema Coordinatesthe book Memories of Cuba dancetogether with Dolores Calviño, and four pamphlets from the series Forty years…dedicated to transcendental productions of the seventh art on the island.
