Landau

LOS ANGELES — Saul Landau, a documentary filmmaker who traveled the world profiling political leaders like Cuba’s Fidel Castro and used his camera to draw attention to war, poverty and racism, has died. He was 77.

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.

Landau wrote 14 books. While most covered issues like radical politics, consumer culture and globalization, one of them, “My Dad Was Not Hamlet,” was a collection of poetry.

His documentaries tackled a variety of issues, but each contained one underlying theme: reporting on a subject that was otherwise going largely unnoticed, whether it was American ghetto life, the destruction of an indigenous Mexican culture or the inner workings of the CIA.

“We tried to take on themes that nobody else was taking on and that were important,” Landau told The Associated Press.