Accelerated Under-Development: In the Idiom of Santiago Alvarez

Santiago Alvarez was one of the great radical film makers whose work should be well known to all those interested in independent minded film making. Alvarez was radical in the sense of politics: a Cuban, he was an ardent supporter of the revolution and director of newsreel production; he saw himself not as a documentarist but as a ‘news pamphleteer’. He was also radical in the sense of form: working with minimum budgets and often re-working footage, he made films that were almost experimental, often personal and poetic. Famously he said: `Give me two photographs, a moviola and some music and I’ll make you a film.’ Travis Wilkerson’s Accelerated Under-Development is an unashamedly didactic, partisan portrait in Alvarez’ own style: brash intertitles, involving music, stark images. Wilkerson himself is a film maker of the American left and his passion for Alvarez’ work as a living example is powerfully felt. His film sweeps us into the director’s world, not held back for one moment by a production disaster that would have devastated other film makers. Wilkerson’s film is complimented by two of Alvarez’ greatest films. lbj, a bitter satire in three parts, around the three assassinations of King and the two Kennedys, brilliantly edited in terms of image and sound. And 79 Springs of Ho Chi Minh, both a masterpiece of personal cinema and a cry of rage against American imperialism.