Havana/This Thursday, the Cuban filmmaker Manuel Pérez Paredes died in Havana, at the age of 85, according to the official press. Affectionately known as Manolitoleft behind a decisive work for the island’s cinema, a mark that dates back to the birth of the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (Icaic) and that continues until his most recent works.
Born in Havana in 1939, Pérez Paredes was a founding member of Icaic, in 1959, and recognized this entity as his “university.” With a permanent curiosity to learn, he assured an interview that “one can have more or less talent, but what cannot be missing is a solid cultural training”, in reference to the need to add knowledge, experiences and readings to cinematographic work. “To be a filmmaker you have to be a cultured man, know about cinema, theater, literature, music,” he stressed then.
Manolito was director of the emblematic film The man from Maisinicú (1973) – considered a classic of Cuban cinema – that earned him international recognition but also followed the official script about the confrontations in Escambray, the mountainous area in the center of the Island. With magnificent performances, the film does not manage to escape the Manichaeism of bandits versus revolutionaries.
In 1988, when Icaic established three Creation Groups to organize the work of its fiction and documentary filmmakers, Pérez Paredes was appointed head of one of them. Under his coordination, emblematic titles were produced such as The beauty of the Alhambra (Enrique Pineda Barnet), adorable lies (Gerardo Chijona), Alice in Wonderland (Daniel Díaz Torres) and Madagascar (Fernando Pérez), among others.
After that stage, he concentrated on artistic advice for documentaries, teaching film appreciation and specialized criticism, frequently collaborating in the magazine Cuban Cinema.
He was co-writer and co-director of the feature-length documentary On the other side of the glass (1995), centered on Operation Peter Pan, and returned to directing with Mauritius diary pages (2006), based on his own script. Member of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba, he chaired its Film, Radio and Television Section in 1977, he was also a member of the Committee of Filmmakers of Latin America – founded in Caracas in 1974 – and the Board of Directors of the Foundation of New Latin American Cinema.
The Havana Film Festival awarded in 2019 a Choir of Honor for considering him “the most acute chronicler of the history of Icaic since its founding times.” He also received the National Film Award in 2013.
Pérez Paredes was not limited to film directing, but actively participated in teaching and cultural promotion. His most recent activity included audiovisual memory campaigns, in addition to participation in documentaries where he recovered little-known testimonies and archives. That tireless energy allowed him to remain active until recently, multiplying voices and images.
So far, details about his funeral have not been published.
