Emilio Oscar Alcalde

Emilio Oscar Alcalde was born in Havana, Cuba, son of Oscar Emilio Alcalde and Teresa Sánchez. He spent part of his childhood in Stockholm, Sweden, where his father was a diplomat. From a young age, he developed a passion for music that drove him to study Physics with the idea of knowing and understanding the "sound". It didn't work out. His interest for cinema made him leave his studies and at the age of 20 he took an advanced course in filming at the Cuban Institute of Art and Cinematography (ICAIC). He later started working as an assistant director at Estudios Granma, the film production company known as "La Filmica". Working at "La Filmica" he directed the short documentary "Oba-Ilu" (1985), the film won the Caracol Award for Best Documentary at the II Festival of Film and TV, UNEAC, in Havana, Cuba. A year later "Viaje de Vida y Vuelta" (1985) won the prize of the World Federation of Democratic Youth during the XXIX Festival of Documentaries and Short Films in Leipzing, Germany. In 1986, Emilio went to Moscow, Russia, to study film at All Russian State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK). He graduated from Yuri Ozerov's class in 1991 with a M.F.A degree in Film and TV Direction. The time when he was living in Russia was unique; it was the time of Perestroika and Glasnost, the fall of Berlin Wall, the time of change. Alcalde went back to Cuba to shoot his thesis film, "El Encanto del Regreso" (1991). The film won the Caracol Award for Best Film, Best Director and Best Cinematography at the VIII Festival of Film and TV, UNEAC. Despite the recognitions and awards, the Cuban government decided that the day of the award ceremony would be the only public showing for the film and banned it. That was a turning point in his life and he had to leave Cuba. In October of 1991 he moved to Bogota. Colombia inspired the work of Alcalde. He started working at COLCULTURA, where along with a group of young directors created "Imaginario", a Documentary TV Show aired in Cadena Tres. In 1993, the show was awarded with the Simón Bolivar Special Category Prize. Some of his notable works made in Colombia are "Memorias de los Bares" (1992), "Viaje al Corazón de Macondo" (1993), "La Calle" (1993), "Lucho Bermúdez" (1994) and the series "Jóvenes Escritores" (1995). "Cantinela, ensayos de Anatoli Vasiliev" (1997), is a remarkable one. For the first time Russian theater director allowed cameras to film one of his rehearsals. This film was presented in Moscow during the celebration for 100 years of Moscow Art Theatre (Slavyansky Bazaar). His passion for music is present throughout documentaries such as, "Jerry Gonzalez and the Ford Apache Band" (1992), "Gonzalo Rubalcaba y el grupo proyecto en concierto" (1992), "Aterciopelados" (1993), "Caifanes" (1993), "Poncho Sánchez, una noche en el Libre" (1995), "Ray Barreto, Spirit of New World" (1996), "Arturo Sandoval, con alma" (1997), "Hermeto Pascoal" (1998), "Billy Branch and the Sons of Blues" (1998). In 1998 Alcalde moved to Miami, USA, with his family. In 2000, he joined A+E Networks Latin America where he worked as Director of Advertising Sales of A&E, Bio, Lifetime and History. In 2013, he established the A+E Networks office in Brazil and was named General Manager. He ran the company until 2018. After 5 years of living in São Paulo, he's back to Miami, focusing on Point of View Productions, the company he opened in 2005 to develop content projects. The first film produced by the company was "René Cabel, el Tenor de las Antillas" (2005). It was released in a special presentation at the Tower Theater in Miami and was received with enthusiasm by public and critics. His next production "AfroCuba '78, the documentary" will be released in 2019.