Humberto Solás(1941-2008)

One of the great filmmakers of revolutionary Cuba, Humberto Solás entered the film industry as a teenager, and made his first short at 18. After taking a film course at Centro Sperimentale de Cinema in Rome, he made a big impression with his 1966 medium-length fiction "Manuela", the first of many films dedicated to the Cuban woman. In 1968 his masterpiece "Lucía" won many prizes and brought him international recognition. But the so-called "parametrización" (discredit or persecution of homosexuals and other "anti-socials") during the early 70's, prevented him from making more personal films. In the 80s he had a big success with "Cecilia", followed by a big controversy due to his free adaptation (along with this longtime friend and collaborator, editor Nelson Rodríguez, and Norma Torrado, editor of documentalist Santiago Alvarez' classics "LBJ" and "Now") of "Cecilia Valdés o La loma del ángel", considered the "national novel" in Cuba. After this scandal, he proved he could make a film on time and under budget with "Amada" (co-directed with Rodríguez) and had another big hit with "Un hombre de éxito", which won first prize in the Havana and Cartagena film festivals. In 1992 he realized an old dream, when he filmed Alejo Carpentier's epic novel "El siglo de las luces" for French television.