Niños de la Memoria

Hundreds — possibly thousands — of children disappeared from El Salvador in the midst of that country's civil war in the 1980s. Niños de la Memoría follows three of those children as they return to their native country in search of identity and answers.

Film Signature Image
Series
Global Voices
Premiere Date
June 30, 2013
Length
60 minutes
Funding Initiative
Open Call
Producer

Kathryn Smith Smith Pyle

Producer Kathryn Smith Pyle is a Sundance Institute Fellow (2011 Documentary Edit and Story Lab; 2009 Creative Producers Lab) whose former career as a grantmaker in the U.S. and Latin America was dedicated to grassroots development and giving voice to marginalized communities, often through community media projects. Her concerns as a documentary… Show more filmmaker continue that commitment, working in partnership with human rights groups and social movements. She has a doctorate in social policy from the University of Pennsylvania, writes about social issue documentaries for The Foundation Center’s online publication, PhilanTopic, and is a photographer. She recently completed a short film on immigration reform, Farm Labor. Show less

Producer/Director

María Teresa Rodríguez

Producer/Director María Teresa Rodríguez's work often centers on untold stories of Latinos in the Americas whose experiences reflect a larger sociopolitical reality. Previous films includes Mirror Dance (with Frances McElroy), which was broadcast on PBS’ Independent Lens, received a LASA Award of Merit and a Cine Golden Eagle Award; the documentary Becoming American… Show more for the California Newsreel/Vital Pictures series Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick? (PBS, 2008), which received a 2009 duPont-Columbia Award and a 2009 Communication Award in TV/Radio/Film from the National Academies, and From Here to There/ De Aquí a Allá, which received a First Place Award for Short Documentary at the XVII International Film Festival of Uruguay. She is a 2012 Fulbright Scholar, a 2011 Sundance Documentary Fellow (Edit and Story Lab), and the recipient of numerous grants and awards including a Pew Fellowship in the Arts and a Leeway Transformation Award, which recognizes the work of women artists engaged in social change. Show less

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The Film

Niños de la Memoria tells the story of the search for children who disappeared during the Salvadoran civil war. Survivors of massacres carried out by the U.S.-trained Salvadoran Army battalions, many were “sold” into adoption in the U.S. and Europe, never knowing their true history or identity. The film weaves together the journeys of investigator Margarita Zamora, adoptee Jamie Harvey, and farmer Salvador García as they search for family, identity, and justice in El Salvador, and asks the larger question: How can a post-war society right the wrongs of the past?

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