Made first amateur short films, "Un fakir" and "La caperucita roja/Little Red Riding Hood", with an 8 mm camera

Collaborated with Nestor Almendros, a fellow student at the University of Havana, on another 8 mm short film, "Una confusion cotidiana/A Common Confusion"

Made first non-amateur short: "El sueno de Juan Bassain/The Dream of Juan Bassin"

Made first documentary short, "El Megano/The Charcoal Worker", co-directed with Julio Garcia Espinosa; screened only once before Batista's police force confiscated the print

Wrote regularly for the weekly film news magazine, CINEREVISTA

Co-founded (with Santiago Alvarez) the Instituto Cubano del Arte y Industria Cinematogragicos (ICAIC); made his first film for ICAIC, the documentary "Este tierra nuestra/This Land of Ours"

Fiction feature directing debut (also writer), the docudrama "Historias de la revolucion/Stories of the Revolution"

Served as a war correspondent and documentarian at the Battle of Giron in the Bay of Pigs

First fully fictional feature film, "Las doce sillas/The Twelve Chairs"

First feature to win international acclaim, "Death of a Bureaucrat"

Made his best-remembered and most acclaimed film, "Memories of Underdevelopment"

First collaboration with cinematographer Mario Garcia Joya, "Una pelea cubana contra los demonios/A Cuban Fight Against the Demons"

Made no feature films; worked primarily at Cuba's Film Institute and served as an advisor to other filmmakers on their projects; later claimed the period was one of "a period of instability . . . of personal and artistic confusion"

"Memories of Underdevelopment" finally released in the United States and then later in France

Wrote scenarios for two films which he did not direct, "De cierta manera/One Way or Another" by Sara Gomez, and "El Otro Francisco/The Other Francisco" by Sergio Giral

Returned to feature filmmaking with "La ultima cena/The Last Supper"

First collaboration with Juan Carlos Tabio, "Up to a Certain Point", directed by Alea and written by Alea, Tabio and Serafin Quinones

Supplied the original idea for the film, "Se Permuta/House for Swap", a Cuban production directed by Juan Carlos Tabio

First international co-production, "Strawberries and Chocolate", a Cuban-Mexican-Spanish production co-directed with Juan Carlos Tabio