Historias prohibidas de Pulgarcito, Paul Leduc, Mexico, 1980, 71'

 During the May session of “Arming the Camera”, we are transported off to Latin America, where conflict in El Salvador is breaking out in 1979. In protest to the war, various filmmakers begin documenting the acts of violence and oppression occurring deep within the Central American country and recording the various manifestations of the struggle of workers and peasants.

Historias prohibidas de Pulgarcito (1980), directed by Paul Leduc, became one of the period’s most important cinematographic works. The piece was financed by the FAPU (Unified Popular Action Front), one of the five organisations of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN). The documentary dives into the day-to-day struggle of the Salvadoran people. It does not limit itself to easily digestible images, and instead seeks to bring visibility to the scale of violence by placing the camera at the centre of the revolutionary action, and remaining faithful to its aim to resonate abroad and serve as an international condemnation of the atrocities experienced there. Testimonial images are interspersed with narration, using texts from poet Roque Dalton, whose book Forbidden Tales of Tom Thumb (1974) inspired the documentary’s creation. Dalton was a Salvadoran poet committed to militancy and social protest until the day he was murdered on 10 May 1975.

The film reflects the beginning of a civil war that would last until 1992, with testimonies from its leading figures, victims, and perpetrators forever captured through images. This film reinforces the idea of proposing a cycle in which film and moving images are catalysts for condemnation, memory, and reflection.

“Now is the time of my turn, the turn of one offended by years of silence despite the screams”.

                                                                                                                             -Roque Dalton