O Sal da Terra

"We are a ferocious animal. We humans are terrible animals. Our history is a history of wars. It's an endless story, a tale of madness." – Sebastião Salgado

Directed by Wim Wenders and Juliano Ribeiro Salgado this documentary goes through the life of the photographer Sebastião Salgado, from its childhood times in Minas Gerais until his current role as an activist and founder of Instituto Terra. Not following the typical poetic and metaphorical style, and sometimes pretentious, that characterizes Wim so much, this documentary follows a simple line, however it's not a light viewing. In fact, it's hard, graphic and even chocking in some parts. Divided between the outside interpretations of Wim and Juliano, they reckon their perspectives were complemented with each other's, Juliano as son of Sebastião and Wim as the outside look, admirer of Salgado's work. But it's when Sebastião analyzes its photographs, the highlight of the film, that we realize who he really is and what he testified, transporting us into an incredible journey of anger, despair and hope.

Living in an age where Hollywood seems to believe that churning out CGI-promoted explosion orgies is the only recipe for success, this quiet documentary about the career of Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado may disappoint some audiences. Basically you only get to see the Salgado's photos and Salgado's face commenting them and telling the stories that are lurking behind. Most of the movie is made in black and white. The effect could not have been greater. Not only are the viewers stunned by the visual brilliance of the pictures and their monumental qualities but they also learn a lot about the tragedies of famines and genocides that took place in Africa in the 1980s and 1990s. To be honest, these tragedies of unbelievable scope are widely forgotten in the western world. Salgado leads us into the darkest heart of humankind where absolute folly and chaos reign instead of rational judgment. Graduating as an economist, Salgado embarked on a decades-long journey as a photographer, investing all the money of his young family in professional equipment. I think it is unjust to consider him someone who makes his living by showing the misery of mankind, like some reviewer has suggested. If Salgado hadn't been there and clicked his camera, we would not have these photos now which give testimony to what really happened in Africa or Kuwait. Just think about the risks that the young father took on when he was travelling through famine-starved desert or civil war-torn regions! Apart from that, this fine documentary does not leave behind its audience in desperation; Wim Wenders deliberately ends this homage on a harmonious chord by showing a successful reforestation project in Brazil which was initiated by Salgado.

The lines on his head were deep as the lines of the earth...

Wim Wenders' new masterpiece is a visually stunning lesson about our planet and our lives. We, the people, are both the salt and the scorch of the Earth...

Juliano Ribeiro Salgado and Wenders have made a thoughtful emotional journey through the life and work of the famous photographer Sebastião Salgado. Both his personal and professional journeys are depicted through the photographs of the talented humanist. The adventurous journey is becoming a discovery of the human nature and after that of nature's condition. A masterful revelation this picturesque travel envisions the marks which we leave on our planet and the traces which we imprint during our stay here.

It is important to note that the overall feeling of this movie is beautifully embodied by the soundtrack as well. And this feeling is surreal - a deep voyage into darkness and light - into the power of drawing with a camera. As a photographer too, I am once again amazed how a single picture can foretell, tell and commit to a certain topic. A person, a landscape, an overall feeling - this is what we get from this film.

Intricately constructed and simplistically presented, the meaning behind these shapes and colors is not ambiguous - we are the spice which could make the Earth both a better and worse place. It is very interesting to see this whole story told in French. I felt a certain feeling mystery and wisdom throughout the whole narrative. And although some scenes were striking, one can only feel humility watching this.

I strongly recommend that every photographer, who is striving to create, should see this movie. This documentary is very much a universal message of the ever repeating cycle of anger - despair - hope. This honorable look at the artist and his power which can transform people and nature is mesmerizing. As a conclusion I truly hope that we can learn from our mistakes and not repeat them all over again. Because when you immerse your soul into the soil, you cannot stay away from the imminent introspection which comes after that...

Wim Wenders being Wim Wenders, he has nothing left to prove about movie making. So most of this documentary is simply made by the pictures of Sebastião Salgado, and by close-ups of his face: he is looking at the images (but through the screen at the same time), while telling and explaining to the audience the genesis and the reasons of his work. It is very simple, yes, but at the same time it's extremely powerful. So powerful that, after a while, I was under the impression that those still b/w images were alive: crowds in the mass scenes seemed to move, people in portraits looked like they were going to turn their heads, and talk.

This movie should be shown in schools. The work of Salgado has testified some of the major (but lesser known) disasters of recent world history, none of which came within ear of the western world - much more interested in the brilliant lives of the fashion victims than in the tragic fate of the casualties of famines and wars.

Nietzsche famously once wrote: "When you look into the abyss, the abyss also looks into you". Salgado had the guts to stare to the abyss, without blinking - but clicking. He did it to give to others the opportunity to know, and possibly to better understand the meaning of the term "humanity". Some of Sebastião Salgado images are horrible, but it is by far more horrible to think that without him those horrors would have happened with nobody to remember about them. His work creates grounds for memory, and memory grows some chances for hope, and hope give us and some reason to believe in a better future for our troubled planet.

THE SALT OF THE EARTH

A documentary on the photographer, Sebastiao Salgado's passion for exposing worlds that are hidden from our view as well as the undercurrents of man's greed, violence and inhumanity - all through what co-director Wim Wenders explains is the process of " drawing with light." The other director is Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, the photographer's son. For many years, I have been beguiled by Salgado's black and white imagery, particularly as source material and inspiration for many of my own late 1980s pastels. His representations are stark and at the same time filled with an expanse of tones - from the deep darkness of coal to the blinding whites which shine with the force of incorporeality; a range of imperceptibly varied grays sandwiched in-between - all breathtakingly beautiful and often reduced to abstract patternings which are in danger of overtaking his subjects, but Salgado is a master at balancing form and content.

I was particularly moved by his photographs of the fierce deprivation that droughts and famine had wreaked on Sub- Saharan Africa - particularly Ethiopia. Because Salgado exposed situations that many people were not aware of, his photos drilled a space for perception into our consciousness. Salgado has traveled to over 100 countries - projects often lasted years and the resulting books include OTHER AMERICAS, WORKERS, SAHEL - THE END OF THE ROAD, MIGRATIONS, Africa, and most recently GENESIS - the book that became his respite after years away from his native environs, witnessing the globe's devastation, including chronicling the genocide in Rawanda and the Congo. By the late 1990's he was heartbroken: "We humans are a terrible animal; we are extremely violent…Our history is a history of war; it's an endless story…My soul was sick…I no longer believed in anything, in any salvation for the human species." (Quotes from Kenneth Turan's review in LA Times.)

THE SALT OF THE EARTH invites us to enter Salgado's personal sphere; we meet his beloved wife Leila, the enduring relationship of his life, the editor of his photographs; the mother of Juliano and Rodrigo - the youngest born with Down syndrome; the compassion and love that unites the entire family in their own personal struggles with domesticity, and the enormous achievement of reclaiming the cattle ranch that was once Salgado's home near the town of Aimores in Brazil's state of Minas Gerais. Memories of the fecund greenery and waterfalls were incised into Sebastiao's childhood recollections and when he returned in the 1990's his homeland was an environmental disaster - dry and parched.

Salgado, his spirit quenched by regarding the pillage, and spoliation around the universe was re-invigorated by Leila's dream of planting a forest in Brazil starting with a few trees and "returning the property to its natural state of subtropical rainforest…and in April 1998 they founded the Instituto Terra, an environmental organization…which has now been declared a Private Natural Heritage Reserve, some 17,000 acres of deforested and badly eroded land… have undergone a remarkable metamorphosis…More than four million seedlings native to Brazil's Atlantic Forest have been raised in the institute's own nursery…" * This resuscitation propelled Salgado to travel again focusing on the beauties of the planet, resulting in his latest book GENESIS. ( *About us -The Instituto Terra.) http://bit.ly/1JQQzvd

The documentary uses Salgado's majestic photographs interspersing them with site visits to previously unrecorded locations, including old color footage; using his voice and conversations to great effect. We get a sense of the quiet strength of this man, his commitment to justice and the deep suffering that his vision extracts with the lens of a camera. The plethora of interchangeable living beings moving about silhouetted against the background of clouds billowing in the infinite skies, underscore the brevity of time and existence. We are only here for a short interval and Salgado's output is a plea for respect, justice and accommodation among the men/women/animals and the frangible cosmos we all inhabit.