Genre: Other

We present an interview by Patricio Salazar  to Jorge Dalton (a well known Salvadorian filmmaker) about his documentary Among the Dead . Patricio Salazar is a Chilean journalist. He studied at the Universdiad de Chile and worked for La Tercera newspaper. He also collaborated with Metro Chile and La Nacin. Patricio is part of the organizing committee of the Words and Images Festival and is presently working as a freelance journalist for the Peterborough This Week newspaper. Interview He was with us a few days ago and dazzled us with his  documentary, Among the Dead , film that was complemented by everyone who attended the premiere at the Royal Ontario Museum on October 25th. Jorge Dalton made his mark on the 20th Images and Words Festival. Here is an interview with the filmmaker. What do you think about your participation in the 20th  Images and Words Festival? I think that the Festival creates a space for a permanent connection between the Latin-American culture and an important city like  Toronto. It has required the greatest effort from the Festivals organizers for  the last 20 years to elevate our different Latin American cultures to the highest level of recognition. As a filmmaker I use a space like that to show my  country's reality and El Salvador's most recent cinematography. El Salvador is one of the nations less developed in filmmaking. Our cinema began recently and it has started its journey with the genre of documentaries. This kind of cinema was born during El Salvador's civil war in the 80s. I'm a member of that cinema movement and I consider it very  important have gone to the 20th Images and Words Festival to show what we are doing in El Salvador. What is the message of "Among The Dead"? My movie is about how Salvadorians live with the concept of  "Death". There are various subjects that I show from a curious, privileged and critical point of view. As a  filmmaker, I don't entirely support the ideas I'm exploring, because to me Life  is the most important thing. However, to many Salvadorians, Death is the way to  solve many issues in the country and that is unacceptable to me. I need to express my disapproval with the means that I have at hand. I reveal the reality  of one of the most violent countries in the world; even when the war has been over for many years, Salvadorians don't seem in a path to build a culture of  peace. There is state of permanent violence in El Salvador with 3 000 assassinated persons in horrible crimes and 4 000 persons disappeared,  sometime entire families. Today we are witnessing that the politicians are not the solution to the problem. My movie generates an exchange of opinions and that is very interesting. What is the relevance of a documentary like Among the Dead among Canadians? This movie has generated a lot of interest in many places  of the world. I think that for Canadians this is important because they can see  a reality that they can't conceive happening. This situation creates an opinion  about the situation of El Salvador among them. What do you think about the situation of many Latinos that have come to Canada running away from the violence of their countries? I don't know Canada very well, but I always heard the  good qualities that the country has had since its foundation. Everyone who is escaping from violent situations that end up in Canada have a much better chance  to build a happy life far away from those deplorable life conditions. I know  that Latinos have problems in Canada too, like exclusion or racism, but their  possibilities are way better than in a country where "Death" is part of every day life.