now!

now!, i think, is agit-prop at its finest...



it's a 6-minute film by santiago álvarez from 1965. álvarez was a cuban journalist and left-wing cultural worker who was jailed a few times during the batista dicatorship. with the triumph of the 26 de julio movement & the cuban revolution in 1959, icaic was established and he was placed in charge of the newsreel division. the camera equipment he was given had been recently expropriated from private newsreel companies; it was antiquated and didn't record sound. undeterred, álvarez improvised an experimental style of noticiero, quite distinct from the kind that was common at the time in the u.s. and elsewhere. they would film silently, then add music or sound effects in the studio afterward.

santiago álvarez worked on the weekly icaic newsreels for years. he also created and collaborated on many films, including the well-known 4-hour la hora de los hornos (the hour of the furnaces), with fernando solanas & grupo cine liberación, about imperialism in south america. alvarez' 6-minute now! draws most directly from his work at noticiero icaic. utilizing cleverly edited newsreel interspersed with pirated images from u.s. magazines like life, it's set to the urgent vocals of lena horne. her single now was banned in the u.s. on many radio stations, and she gave the song to álvarez to use in this film...


now! : santiago álvarez