Cuban filmmaker, he made many good films using a low budget and limited resources. Most of his films were political.
short biography from allmovie.com
Santiago Alvarez was an influential figure in the development of Cuban
cinema and - even after his death - remains the country's preeminent
documentary filmmaker; he is known for his innovative genius. While he
was a young man, Alvarez lived and studied in the U.S. He went back to
Cuba in the mid-1940s and began working at a local television station
as a music librarian. At that time he was also an active member of the
communist party and of "Nuestro Tiempo," a political and cultural
society. Following the Cuban Revolution, the 40-year-old Alvarez began
making documentaries, despite the fact that he had no formal training.
In 1959, he co-founded the Instituto del Arte y Industria
Cinematograficos (ICAIC), a filmmaking collective devoted to making
revolutionary films. For a time he was the head of the ICAIC's newsreel
division. Alvarez's documentaries are characterized by their
pro-Castro, anti-imperialist themes. Stylistically, the films are
fast-paced, almost jittery animated collages that combine an eclectic
blend of visual images ranging from cartoons to photographs to
Hollywood film clips with unusual editing and the judicious use of
sound. His unique style can be seen in his satirical 1968 short
LBJ.
He once said something like: Give me 2 pictures a song and some film and i'll make you a movie.