Help Eduardo Rodriguez Bring Salvadoran Series to Life

Hi, I’m Eduardo Rodriguez, a Salvadoran American artist, screenwriter, and filmmaker. I am the writer and creator of “Billiards of Dreams”, a film series about a generation whose normal lives and ordinary dreams were changed by the social injustices that led a country into a civil war.

In this story, the irreverence and victories of a talented young billiard player set to win a mystical prize and become the youngest champion in his neighborhood, angers his opponent, a vicious cop in the Salvadoran dictatorship, triggering a brutal repression. The dreams of a generation are about to be changed forever In a World where reality mixes with magical realism. It is 1979 during the eve of the Salvadoran civil war and the military dictatorship is in constant pursuit of suspected rebels. Cops frequently target young people as they are considered the seed of the revolutionary movement. An atmosphere of authoritarianism pervades against youths who find themselves on the brink of captivity, exile, or death. That is the scenario for the young man in this story, as well as for his girlfriend and friends.

Billiard of Dreams is an important project to me because reflects my own story, dreams, and the dreams of my generation. It is a story on how those dreams in El Salvador were changed by a civil war, causing many to flee the country and assume a new life as immigrants in the US. Up to now, most of the stories you may have heard, read or seen about El Salvador didn’t come from the voices of that generation. I am trying to change that by giving my own voice in the creation of this story.

This project is an initial effort to develop a visual storytelling about the experiences that caused the first-generation of Salvadorans to flee their country and come to the US. The project aims at successfully becoming the first, or one of the first, series or films originated within the Salvadoran Diaspora in the US, written and directed by Salvadoran Americans, filmed in El Salvador with Salvadoran actors and a Salvadoran film crew, and to be released for the entertainment and education of Salvadoran audiences in the US, as well as other US audiences. The script for the pilot episode was selected as a quarterfinalist by the San Francisco International Screenwriting Competition.

Your support will help to raise funds for the first filming part of the project, a trailer scheduled to be filmed in November 2024, for three to five days in El Salvador. This includes the payment and food for twenty actors, eight crew members, equipment rental, transportation, production design, travel expenses, permits and fees. All the donations will be acknowledged in the credits of the film series. Thank you in advance for helping me create the first Salvadoran American film series in the US!