El Salvador: Mega Prisons, Maras & the Coolest Dictator

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.

The Crazy Life

A documentary about the rival gangs Mara 18 and Mara Salvatrucha, originating in Los Angeles but terrorizing El Salvador. It explores their origins as possible founding myths of organized crime in a globalized world.

El Negro, El Indio

A meditation on the intersection of Afro-Caribbean and Indigenous American existence.

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.

La decisión de vencer (Los primeros frutos)

Filmed by Guillermo Escalón in July 1981, it shows daily life in territories under guerrilla control in the Francisco Sánchez Northeastern Front, Department of Morazán,

Tiempo de audacia

This documentary juxtaposes scenes of El Salvador's opposition factions, including U.S. government advisors and government troops, and guerrillas and their sympathizers.

Salvador : vivre sous Bukele

10 Years of Taking the Sky by Storm

Produced by the Radio Venceremos System, chronicles the first decade of the guerrilla broadcaster that became a crucial communication tool for the FMLN during El Salvador’s civil war. Through archival footage, radio transmissions, testimonies, and scenes of daily life in liberated zones, the film traces the station’s military, political, and cultural role, from reporting on combat operations and peasant struggles to fostering literacy, music, and international solidarity. The documentary portrays Radio Venceremos not only as a strategic instrument of war, but as a symbol of resistance, collective organization, and revolutionary memory.

De la guerra a la paz

A production by Radio Venceremos in 1992. The documentary's central objective is to showcase Radio Venceremos' new role after the end of the armed conflict, portraying it as a radio station that would continue serving the needs of the Salvadoran people. The documentary includes some of Radio Venceremos' broadcasts during the Salvadoran peace process.

La luz que te decía

Filmed during the Salvadoran civil war, La luz que te decía documents the struggles of the country’s labor and trade union movement amid escalating political violence. Through strike footage, congress meetings, marches, and first-person testimonies, the film portrays a society marked by state repression, workers’ mobilization, and efforts to build national and international solidarity. The documentary pays particular attention to the strike of the National Water Authority workers (ANDA), featuring members of the SETA union who describe the causes of the protest, the repression they faced, and the survival strategies adopted during the conflict. Testimonies from other unions, grassroots organizations, and international labor groups broaden the film’s perspective beyond a single labor dispute.

Tiempo de victoria

It documents the civil war in El Salvador, in its first 8 years, as well as the political movements, and the human rights violations that occurred.

Doble cara

This documentary examines the formation of labor unions in El Salvador and the systematic violations of workers’ rights that characterized the country during the 1980s. Through testimonies and on-the-ground footage, it exposes the climate of employer authoritarianism and repression faced by workers, situating these conflicts within a broader history of social unrest that dates back to the 1930s and re-emerged with intensity in the 1980s. The film also depicts how the guerrilla movement carried out campaigns of political and labor awareness among peasants and workers, encouraging collective organization and the defense of labor rights. Ultimately, the documentary reveals the “two faces” of El Salvador: on one side, state power embodied by the army and the police; on the other, the opposition represented by guerrilla forces and grassroots popular organizations.

Wild El Salvador: In the Shadow of the Volcanoes

Join affable presenter Nigel Marven as he explores El Salvador, the volatile land of volcanoes with a colorful culture and natural history. Follow along as he climbs an active volcano near the capital San Salvador, comes face-to-face with a crocodile, cuddles a caecilian, fights fire with fire, dives deep into a volcanic lake, and discovers the Pompeii of Central America.

The Massacre at El Mozote, Twenty Years Later

Pedro Linger Gasiglia’s twelve-minute documentary "The Massacre at El Mozote: Twenty Years Later," offers first-person accounts of the horrors as well as the media’s lack of coverage.

The Tiniest Place

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.

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.

Little Birds

Through dances and games, migrant boys and girls who live in a shelter in Reynosa, on the US-Mexico border, shared their dreams and stories of hope with us.

El Salvador: O Dia em que o Medo Mudou de Lado

1932: Scars of Memory

January 22, 1932. An unprecedented peasant uprising erupts in western El Salvador, as a group of Latino and indigenous peasants cut army supply lines, attack a military garrison, and take control over several towns. Retribution is swift. After three days, the army and militias move in and, in some villages, slaughter all males over age 12. Elsewhere, they summarily execute anyone suspected of having a link to the Communists. Over the next few weeks, 10,000 people are massacred.

Monseñor: The Last Journey of Óscar Romero

Using rare footage from his own collection as well as interviews and photographs, this documentary profiles Óscar Romero, the Salvadoran priest whose championing of the poor and downtrodden against a corrupt government made him a global hero.