Underplayed Gems

Finding Oscar (2016)

Finding Oscar poster
Directed by
Ryan Suffern
Genre
documentary film, drama film, crime film, mystery film, historical film
Country
Guatemala, United States, Canada
Runtime
1h 40m
Rating
7.7 of 10 from 12 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
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How it feels

This documentary investigates a 1982 massacre in Guatemala and follows the story of a man who survived it as a child. It pieces together historical evidence and interviews to show how he was found living in the United States decades later.

soberinvestigativemelancholicdeliberateunsettlingfactualtenseeducational

What happens

Finding Oscar is a 2016 documentary film that explores the Dos Erres massacre, perpetrated by the Armed Forces of Guatemala in the department of Petén on 6 December 1982. It was directed by Ryan Suffern and Steven Spielberg was the executive producer. The Kennedy/Marshall Company was the production company, in association with the USC Shoah Foundation, the Friends of FAFG, and Diamond Docs. The "Oscar" of the title refers to Oscar Alfredo Ramirez Castañeda, one of the few survivors of the massacre, who was found living in the U.S. state of Massachusetts and whose story the documentary narrates. Other appearances are made by U.S. archivist and researcher Kate Doyle, former attorney-general of Guatemala Claudia Paz y Paz, human rights activist Aura Elena Farfán of GAM and FAMDEGUA, U.S. foreign correspondent Sebastian Rotella, and Fredy Peccerelli of the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation (FAFG). Presidents Ronald Reagan and Efraín Ríos Montt appear in archive footage. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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