Just released after its Oscar-qualifying festival run, director Pablo Leon and producer Jonathan Coria’s animated short follows a journalist documenting childhood loss, violence against women and the indigenous population, and regaining a sense of hope for the future.
100 Volcanoes, in collaboration with Antigravity Academy, Ocelotl Productions, Dinamita Animacion, Kojtanchanej Productions, and Streets Ahead Productions, has just released Remember Us, a 13-minute animated short film about a journalist who documents the experiences of three different people who lived through the tragic 12-year Salvadoran Civil War in the 1980s. Written and directed by Pablo Leon and produced by Jonathan Coria, the hand-drawn 2D film explores themes of childhood loss, violence against women and the indigenous population, and the recovery of hope for the future spanning three generations.
According to Leon, Remember Us is a reminder that film isn’t just entertainment, it’s memory. It’s testimony. It’s a way to carry stories forward that might otherwise be forgotten. “I love when people share about their love of Latin American culture – the food, the art, the volcanoes – but I want to be real about the fact that our countries have seen a lot of conflict that cycles every few decades, and we really should talk about it.” he shared. “I feel strongly that talking about the past restores people’s dignity and all those that we’ve lost, and I’m delighted to be able to do that, in the medium that I also love the most.”
Read AWN’s interview with Leon:
‘Remember Us’: Addressing the Rarely Spoken About Salvadoran Civil War
The film qualified for an Oscar by winning Best Short Film of Spanish-Speaking Nationality – Animation with Ñ at the Animayo International Festival of Animation in 2024.
You can watch it here or enjoy it below:
The Salvadoran Civil War – the fight between the government of El Salvador and the former guerilla rebel group Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front – lasted more than 12 years, carnage replete with kidnappings, torture, and murder. All told, between 1979 and 1992, more than 75,000 people were killed, along with approximately 8,000 people who “disappeared,” according to the United Nations (UN). The start of El Salvador’s civil war coincided with the 1979 victory of the leftist Sandinistas in the Nicaraguan revolution and with the ongoing civil war in Guatemala (1961-1996), and the subsequent Contra war in Nicaragua (1981-1990).
So much death. So much loss. And, according to Guatemalan author and filmmaker Pablo Leon, barely a word is spoken about it. This film reflects on the legacy of El Salvador’s civil war and the voices of those who lived through it, people who lost family, language, identity, and still found ways to rebuild.
Leon is a Guatemalan author, artist, and director based in Los Angeles, working across TV animation and comics. An Eisner Award nominee for “The Journey,” he illustrated Scholastic’s “Miles Morales” series and has collaborated with Disney, Warner Bros., and Nickelodeon. His work explores historical memory, including his debut graphic novel, “Silenced Voices,” published by HarperCollins, and the animated short Remember Us, which qualified for Academy Award consideration.
Dan Sarto is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network.
