Celebrity Biographies
July Diamond
Julio Diamante passed away on August 1, 2020, in Madrid, at the age of 89, as reported by the Film Academy. The City Council of Cádiz, the filmmaker’s hometown, has decreed a day of official mourning for his death.
Born in the Andalusian city on December 27, 1930, Julio Diamante Stihl moved to Madrid at a very young age. There he began to study Medicine, and became director of the University Theater Group. In the mid-50s he became a member of the Communist Party, along with Enrique Múgica and Jorge Semprún .
Graduated in 1961 from the Instituto de Investigaciones y Experiencias Cinematográficas, precursor of the Official School of Cinematography in Madrid, he became one of the most prominent representatives of the New Spanish Cinema, with titles such as Those who did not go to war , Tiempo de amor , The art of living , Chicago Times or Helena and Fernanda . Julio Diamante was also responsible for 18 years of the Benalmádena International Auteur Film Week, teacher, amateur singer. As a writer, he published the collections of poems “Blues jondo” and “Cantes de ida y vuelta” , and the film essays “Los trabajos y los días”, “De la idea al film“ and “Cinema, culture and freedom: against the shadows and silence”.
He said goodbye to cinema with La memoria rebelde , a documentary that includes the testimonies of Santiago Carrillo, José María Díez Alegría, José Antonio Labordeta, Ana María Matute, Nicolás Sartorius, Rosa Regàs, and other personalities to reconstruct the history of Spain since the Second Republic until transition.