Araya

Margot Benacerraf made this documentary about the hard and tedious life of workers in Venezuela who dry out and then transport salt from their marshes. It's backbreaking work and goes on day after day with no end. Not surprisingly, it makes for some VERY tedious and dull viewing. What makes it even worse is that the film often is very artsy (such as the first seven minutes of the film during which there is no narration AND the camera seems to focus on anything but the salt or the workers). Certainly this is not a film to be enjoyed by the average viewer (they'll hate it) but is best seen as an ethnographic documentary about a tough way of life back in 1959. I have no idea if this sort of work continues to this day. Nice camera-work (when it's not focusing on clouds, cacti or other irrelevant stuff) but also a film that defies my ability to give it a numerical score. And, it also bored me to tears.

A Venezuelan documentary about the salt pyramids in a place called Araya and those who made their living there. Trust us, whatever job you're doing right now, it is nothing compared to what these people have to put up with. They toil from day to night, with little payment and in the scorching sun. They were resigned to their fate since childhood and it is the only thing they know. The director chose to shoot like a fly on the wall (in this case, on a salt pyramid) what they actually do in a day. After you watch this, you'll appreciate your job and life like you never did before. It is an affirmation of the human ability to take on what seems impossible and turn it into an amazing possibility. The cinematography in black and white was illuminating too. Take a chance and give this a try. You won't regret it and might even learn a thing or two about human being's indomitable perseverance.

You'll never look at a Morton's container the same way. What comes through most vividly in this strange documentary is the tedium and monotony of the two jobs...salt mining and fishing...on the peninsula of Araya. Unfortunately, about halfway through, perhaps due to the droning tones of the high school science class level narrator or the way the film maker has his subjects walk zombie like throughout the entire film, this enervation begins to affect the viewer (well, at least this viewer). Give it a B minus, mostly for the awesome, surreal cinematography. And please pass the pepper.

This documentary-style, relatively short feature film is poignant, stunning in it's simplicity and rich in its humane impulses; it features actual workers in an almost impossibly hostile semi-desert bordering on the ocean that has served as a salt mine for over 450 years; the huge pyramids of salt are impressive, but even more so are the men who climb them with 140 pound baskets of salt, dumping them on top and receiving a few coins in their palms each time--and the women at the base of the pyramids who bag and tie the salt in hideously hot and dry climate.

While this group produces much of the money for the locals in their adobe villages, another group produces the food, venturing out in a large boat every morning hopefully to return with nets full of fish, as they have for hundreds of years. There is a strong sense of community that binds these people, and filmmaker Margot Benacerraf, instead of having anyone employ dialogue, follows her subjects with mostly poetic narration and a strong musical soundtrack.

There is actually a conclusion, and how the viewer reacts to it will certainly reflect attitudes toward modernization and the erasure of ancient traditions; this is a remarkably visual film, stunning to look at, whether from the top of a salt pyramid or bending down to a simple grave decorated with seashells in lieu of the flowers which cannot grow in this part of Venezuela. This is a valuable film document of a disappeared occupation; be sure to watch the "extra" which, fifty years later, follows up on some of the original workers.

Stunning black and white cinematography, and a documentary that truly transported me into the rugged lives of the Venezuelan laborers on the Araya peninsula, who mined the sea for salt for 450 years in much the same way we see here. The work is under scorching conditions and frankly pretty brutal, but every family member has their task and diligently performs it, day in and day out. The film takes a 'poetic realism' approach to the depiction, which has the benefit of the narrator taking the larger view of it all and imbuing it with a wonderful sense of grace. It has the disadvantage that questions we might ask are left out, such as where these people get their clothes or corn, and perhaps more importantly, what they themselves feel about their lives, what their hopes and dreams are, and what their views are of the modernization we see looming in the final few minutes (but unfortunately not expanded on). In short, it would have been nice to hear them speak. Despite that, it's a real work of art, unique and with images that will stay with me. It's a damn shame that director Margot Benacerraf did not make more films, because she really knocked it out of the park with this one.