Fireflies at El Mozote

During the 1980s civil war in El Salvador, a rebel group of leftist guerrillas fight to expose its government's death squads via an underground radio network and hope to end their government's reign of terror with the help of an American journalist.

Voces inocentes

A young boy, attempting to have a normal childhood in 1980s El Salvador, is caught up in a dramatic fight for his life when he desperately tries to avoid the war that is raging all around him.

Salvador

In 1980, an American journalist covering the Salvadoran Civil War becomes entangled with both the leftist guerrilla groups and the right-wing military dictatorship while trying to rescue his girlfriend and her children.

The Last Thing He Wanted

At the turning point of the Iran-Contra affair, Elena McMahon, a fearless investigative journalist covering the 1984 US presidential campaign, puts herself in danger when she abandons her assigned task in order to fulfill the last wish of her ailing father, a mysterious man whose past activities she barely knows.

Los peces fuera del agua

Olivia is a disturbed woman who shows some signs of amnesia and madness. Accompanied only by Esther, she fantasizes that some day her beloved Julio will return, but he only writes her letters. Esther, however, keeps a terrible secret from her.

Malacrianza

The life of a simple piñata salesman named Don Cleo is turned upside down when he falls victim to an extortionist he can’t possibly afford to pay. The harder he tries to raise the funds, the deeper into trouble he gets. If Don Cleo hopes to survive, he’ll have to face his fears and stand up to his tormentors.

Saturday Fuego Diablo

In 1981 Montreal, four Salvadoran siblings, new to Canada, seek distance from the uprisings occurring in their home country by hitting a night club, but it does not go as planned.

Buscadores

Two friends decide to spend the last vacation together, before parting their ways forever in a journey they never will forget.

Quisiera ser Arte

A monologue about the meaning of being art, delivered by the last character you’d expect: a pair of pants. A short film by Ponchi Simán.

Return to El Salvador

Return to El Salvador explores the reconstruction of El Salvador, post-civil war. The film revisits the struggles of the nation and examines what drives over 700 Salvadorans to flee their homeland each day, often risking their lives to illegally enter countries in search of a better life for their families. The film also profiles a number of Salvadorans effected by the civil war. One couple, who fled death threats in the 1980s, finds asylum and a political platform in the United States. The film also follows a different couple who, after escaping the war, returned to El Salvador to work with churches and poor communities.

Maria's Story

It is El Salvador, 1989, three years before the end of a brutal civil war that took 75,000 lives. Maria Serrano, wife, mother, and guerrilla leader is on the front lines of the battle for her people and her country. With unprecedented access to FMLN guerrilla camps, the filmmakers dramatically chronicle Maria's daily life in the war.

Borderlands

Fleeing the 1980 Civil War in El Salvador, Dora Rodriguez, among a group of twenty-five asylum seekers, were abandoned by their guide and left to fend for themselves in the relentless Sonoran desert of Arizona.

La vida loca

Reflects a depressing and hopeless reality by following some of the members of "la dieciocho", the so-called 18th Street gang in a poor San Salvador neighborhood.

La Confesión

A catholic priest in Monte Bello, El Salvador has created a clandestine operating room inside the church to extract the human organs of kidnapped people and sell them on the black market.

El lugar más pequeño

Years after the Salvadoran military destroyed the village of Cinquera in that country’s civil war, survivors have returned to rebuild their community. Soulful, beautifully rendered, this amazing debut is an evocative testament to place, memory and the power of life to rebound from tragedy.

El Salvador: El pueblo vencerá

The battle of El Salvador and its revolutionary history, from the time of the Spanish conquest and colonization, to the insurgency of the 80s, approached by a Puerto Rican filmmaker immersed in the conflict. Depicts a host of F.M.L.N. guerrillas marching forth from Monte Alzaco, the spiritual home of Salvadoran resistance.

El tigre y el venado

In El Salvador, Chelino tells about the indigenous massacre of 1932, of which he survived, while he teaches the melodies of traditional Salvadoran dances.

Cuerpos juzgados

Justice and the Generals

In late 1980, the bodies of four American women were exhumed from a crude grave in El Salvador. The women - Ita Ford and Maura Clarke, nuns of the Maryknoll Congregation in New York; Dorothy Kazel, a nun in the Ursuline Sisters of Cleveland; and Jean Donovan, a lay missionary from the Cleveland Mission - had been abducted, raped, and murdered. An investigation led to the trial and conviction of five Salvadoran National Guardsmen.

Seeing El Salvador

This Traveltalk series short starts in San Salvador, El Salvador's capital, emphasizing the Spanish architectural heritage. We then go to the Izalco Volcano, which was created in 1770 by an eruption of the Santa Ana Volcano. The focus then shifts to the country's agriculture. The two main products are coffee and henequen, a plant with tough, fibrous leaves used to make rope, baskets, and other products.