El Pueblo Unido: Third Cinema and Revolution During the Salvadoran Civil War

Abstract

Occurring from 1979 to 1992, the Salvadoran Civil War was a period of unrelenting violence and great socio-political change, which drastically affected various elements of culture and tradition within the small Central American country. Armed conflict between the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), a coalition of various left-wing groups, and the military government of El Salvador resulted in approximately 75,000 deaths, with the bulk of these occurring primarily within rural areas of the country. Using communications as a means of resistance, the FMLN sought to counteract the advantages granted to the opposing side by an alliance with the United States. Ultimately, the FMLN would go on to create a film collective as a branch of their radio network "Radio Venceremos." Along with the Film Institute of Revolutionary El Salvador, with which they eventually merged, the filmmakers of Radio Venceremos would establish a third cinema tradition that spawned several documentaries.

This thesis seeks to prove that the FMLN's commitment to deconstructing neocolonialism and repression, reflected within the works of their film collective, reinvigorated the Salvadoran film industry. Moreover, that the movement towards a third cinema in El Salvador also permanently changed the nation culturally and historically.