Guillermo Escalón

Two paths cross on a descent into Guatemala's past: that of Mateo Pablo, a Maya survivor of one of many massacres committed by local government troops, and Daniel Hernández-Salazar, a concerned Guatemalan artist and photographer. Together they travel to a remote site in the highlands where the community of Petanac once stood. The bones found there by archaeologists tell a mute story of agony.

The folkloric Dance of the 24 Devils sheds new light on the reality of Guatemala. The Devils reveal a strong antagonism, both contemporary and mythological: they've declared war on humanity and have set out "to capture all souls", while Death heralds the end of mankind! Combining lyricism, realism and irony, The Devil's Dream explores the soul of this paradoxical country. We discover not only the beauty of the landscape, the people and their creative imagination, but also the wretched conditions of life, the spectre of violence, and a pervasive sense of the absurd. Guatemala is a society split between native and non-native, rich and poor, civil and military. Native people pick cotton for two dollars a day, their children work for half that amount. Those who dare to protest risk their lives. In this documentary, the people tell the story in their own words.

Filmmaker Guillermo Escalon and composer Igor Gandarias are in residence at EMPAC to record the Hudson River journey of Beatriz Cortez’s sculpture Ilopango, the Volcano that Left, for a forthcoming film (2024). The sculpture will sail up the Hudson River by boat from its exhibition at Storm King Art Center to EMPAC for the opening of Shifting Center, where it will be installed for the duration of the exhibition. Shifting Center also features Escalon and Gandarias’ film Rapsodia.

This film aims to describe the agony of a biology teacher who finds himself in a place of limits, at the edge of life and death. Set in the years just prior to El Salvador's civil war, years in which teachers were targeted and brutalized.

An experimental short film about a day in the life of a barefoot boy who sells newspapers in San Salvador.

Alejandro Cotto, a pioneer of Salvadoran cinema, celebrates his 63rd birthday in Suchitoto while the youth celebrate the end of the civil war. He speaks with Escalón about the struggles faced by Third World filmmakers, the horrors of war, the fate of his village, and the pursuit of his dreams.

Filmed by Guillermo Escalón in July 1981, it shows daily life in territories under guerrilla control in the Francisco Sánchez Northeastern Front, Department of Morazán,