The first such event was dedicated to Mexican documentary maker Julio Pliego, "who left an important visual record of his countrys main social movements."

Latin American filmmakers will again get together "to posthumously pay homage to a master of documentary film, Cuban Octavio Cortázar -a man of an extraordinary sensitivity and talent," said the events organizers.

The event will also be dedicated to Bolivian filmmaker Humberto Ríos Toro, who lives in Argentina since 1960 and has a vast documentary work. Ríos Toro is also a renowned painter, set designer, photographer and professor -a man committed to reality and "the just political and social causes he reflects and defends in his works."

Among the Bolivian filmmakers most important works stand out his feature films 'Al grito de este pueblo (Bolivia, 1971); 'El tango es una historia (Mexico, 1982) and 'Del viento y del fuego (Mexico, 1983), as well as his short films 'Italia 58 (Italy, 1958); 'Hombres de puerto (Argentina, 1974); 'Prensa (Argentina, 1960) and an Argentinean classic 'Faena (1960).

Cuban Octavio Cortázar, for his part, is considered one of the best Latin American audiovisual artists. Founder of the Cuban Film Institute (ICAIC) and maker of Cuban classics like his documentary film "Por primera vez, he devoted his life to the promotion of the seventh art and was also a renowned professor at the Havana-based International Film and Television School and the Higher Institute of Arts, always fostering a sense of virtue in his pupils.

Among his films stand out his first work, a fiction film titled 'El brigadista (1978) that won the Silver Bear award for the best first work during the 27th Berlin International Film Festival.

The Festival de la memoria festival will be held from May 11th through the 18th. The film events program includes the screening of some of the works by Cortázar and Ríos Toro.

(www.cubasi.cu)