Las Muertes Más Bellas del Mundo Film

Las Muertes Más Bellas del Mundo / The Most Beautiful Deaths in the World is a feature-length documentary film that tells the story of the Salvadorean diaspora in the Nation’s Capital through the eyes of Salvadorean Artists who made art out of war, beginning at the heart of el barrio and spreading outward.

Help us raise $20,000 by the end of July to finish the film! We need your financial support to help cover the costs of final production, editing, as well as outreach and organizing to promote the project. We have an amazing, talented team and we need to pay them.

We are grateful for the support we have received to get us this far from the Diverse City Fund, the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, HumanitiesDC, the Mayor’s Office on Latino Affairs, and individual donors… now, we need your support to help us get over the finish line!

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"In 1980, the civil war in El Salvador hurled a human bomb in Washington’s direction. We were the pieces of Spanish-speaking shrapnel flying all over... And what do you do when you’re house is on fire? You run. So we ran and we landed here. And Washington has been stuck with the pupusa ever since." –Quique Aviles

about the film

since 1980 – the beginning of the mass exodus fueled by the US-backed war – to the present, hundreds of thousands of people from El Salvador have made the Washington DC region their home. las muertes más bellas del mundo tells the story of their struggles and humanity through the eyes of artists of the Salvadorean diaspora. at the corner of 15th and Irving Streets in NW DC, these artists have made art out of war and gave birth to a uniquely Salvadorean-Wachintonian identity.

featured artists

the film focuses on the stories and artistic work - original music, poetry, imagery - of musicians Machetres, Lilo Gonzalez, and Ivan Navas; poet Quique Aviles; Flamenco Dancer and Choreographer Edwin Aparicio; and photographer Muriel Hasbun, with original beats by Hugo Najera (DJ Mezkla).

produced by the yellow house collective

Quique Aviles, Hilary Binder-Aviles, Delia Beristain Noriega, Miguel Castro Luna, Carolina Fuentes, Jo Jovel, Camilo Montoya. Filmmakers: Mark Perkins, Ellie Walton, and Magee McIlvaine. Advisors-Scholars: Jose Centeno Melendez, Olivia Cadaval, and Ana Patricia Rodriguez.

why this film, why now

the Washington DC Region is home to the largest Salvadorean community in the US outside of California and is the only metropolitan area where the majority of Latinos are Salvadorean. this history is largely untold, but that is changing with La Manplesa, our sister documentary that tells the story of the 1991 uprising in Mt. Pleasant after the shooting of an unarmed Salvadoran man. las muertes más bellas del mundo contributes another piece of the Salvadorean-Wachintonian story and how we have contributed to the city’s artistic and cultural scene.

supporters and partners

las muertes más bellas del mundo has received financial support from The DiverseCity Fund, The Mayor’s Office of Latino Affairs, Washington Humanities, and individual donors. Other partners include The Theater Lab, GALA Hispanic Theatre, and the District of Columbia Arts Center (DCAC), our fiscal sponsor.