Herman Puig

Herman Puig died on 25 January 2021, one month short from his 93rd birthday.

Puig often stated that he was the original founder of the Cinemateca de Cuba, stating that the ICAIC, with the goal of making the myth live that the history of Cuban cinema began with the creation of the ICAIC in 1959, has hidden the truth from sight. The attempted suppression of his involvement, along with that of Ricardo Vigón, from history for political means has aided in sheltering Herman from the Cuban community as he frequently refuses to exhibit his work in Cuba in fear of his being mistaken as a sympathizer with the Communist regime. El Ateneo de Madrid officially acknowledged them as the founders of the Cinemateca de Cuba with a tribute to German Puig in October 2009.

Puig, along with a group that included Carlos Franqui, the future ICAIC cameraman Ramón F. Suárez, and the writers Edmundo Desnoes and Guillermo Cabrera Infante (Tres tristes tigres) made a number of short films. Herman Puig, together with Carlos Franqui, made a short film (Carta de una madre, Letter to a mother). Puig and Edmundo Desnoes also made a short, Sarna (1952), which was produced and edited by cinematographer Ramón F. Suárez.

He studied painting and sculpture in Cuba and filmed his first short "Sarna" before leaving for Paris at the age of 20 where he studied Audio Visual Techniques. In 1950 he worked for Henri Langlois director and co-founder of the Cinémathèque Française. This association lead to the foundation of the original Cinemateca de Cuba, officialised as an institution in 1948, and founded by Herman Puig and Ricardo Vigón, which would later be reborn in 1961 with the initiative of Alfredo Guevara and the then newly formed ICAIC as today's Cuba Cinemateca.

In October 1950 Herman Puig travelled to Paris where he met with Henri Langlois, the director of the Cinémathèque Française. Their first encounter was brief but decisive as Henri Langlois agreed to supply him with French films for their Cinema Club of Havana (the early Cinemateca de Cuba) but on the condition that their small Cinema Club became an official institution as the Cinémathèque Française could only legally exchange films with a similar institution. Unforeseen political elements resulted in the closure of the Cinemateca a few months later and it would not open again until 1961, but Herman's love affair with France was cemented, along with his place in Cuban Cinema history.

Herman Puig (born German Puig Paredes; 25 February 1928 in Sagua La Grande – 25 January 2021 in Barcelona) was the founder of the first Cinemateca de Cuba and pioneer of male nude photography. Born in Havana, Cuba, where he began his early work, his ascendance comes from Catalonia. He rose to fame in France.