Saul Landau, a prolific, award-winning documentary filmmaker who travelled the world profiling political leaders like Cuba’s Fidel Castro and Chile’s Salvador Allende and used his camera to draw attention to war, poverty and racism, has died. He was 77.
Landau, who had been battling bladder cancer for two years, died on Monday night at home in Alameda, California, with his children and grandchildren, said colleague John Cavanagh, director of the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, where Landau had worked for many years.
The director, producer and writer of more than 40 documentaries had continued to work almost until his death. He regularly submitted essays to the Huffington Post and elsewhere, sometimes writing from his hospital bed, according to his son, Greg. He was also working on a documentary on homophobia in Cuba. Even in his final weeks, as his health was failing, Cavanagh said, Landau would become energised whenever the conversation turned to how people could improve humanity.