Cuba Mourns Death of Renowned Filmmaker Julio Garcia Espinosa

Garcia Espinosa directed seven documentaries and six fiction films, among which Aventuras de Juan Quinquin (1961) and La inutil muerte de mi socio Manolo (1989) stand out

Renowned Cuban filmmaker Julio Garcia Espinosa died at age 89 in Havana. According to a note by Prensa Latina, Garcia Espinosa, 2004 National Film Award winner, was the only founder of the Cuban Film Institute (ICAIC) –which he directed from 1983 to 1991- that was still alive.

Acknowledged as a virtuoso of seventh art, to which he dedicated much of his life, he left as a legacy many works as a documentary maker, screenwriter and director, in an artistic career that began in the 1950s.

Excelling in that period is a material of great importance, El Megano, a short he directed in 1955 and that is considered to be the main antecedent of the new Cuban cinema.

As a director, Garcia Espinosa made seven documentaries and six fiction films, among which Aventuras de Juan Quinquin (1961) and La inutil muerte de mi socio Manolo (1989) stand out.  He was the scriptwriter of more than 20 films, like Lucía (1968), by Humberto Solas, and La Primera carga al machete, by Manuel Octavio Gomez (1969).

He received dozens of awards at the national and Iberian-American
levels, like the National Culture Award (1981), the Alejo Carpentier Medal (1982) and the Felix Varela Order (1984), in addition to the aforementioned award, the highest a filmmaker can be presented with on the island.