In the Name of the People
“In 1982, four U.S. journalists were smuggled into Guazapa, a rebel-controlled area in El Salvador, where they spent five weeks filming the daily life of the local FMLN guerillas and the peasants who support them. They focused on a small group of people living in Quipurito, a guerilla supply base along the El Salvador/Honduras border. As the rebels and supporters relate their stories to the filmmakers, the full depth of their personal commitment to the revolutionary movement emerges. Nearly all interviewed have lost their land or families, and as a result see revolution as the key to their survival. During the course of the filming, the war takes a further toll: a column of rebels leave the base camp to join an attack on a government outpost near San Salvador. Over the CB radio, they hear that Quipurito has been attacked and a third of the population killed.” Kathy Geritz