Sands Films in Rotherhithe frequently puts on neglected films that are superb pieces of cinema. The 1950s Award Winner is no exception. A grim but poetic stylised documentary on the archaic lives of salt gatherers in Venezuela, it captivated me.
“Araya” is an old natural salt mine located in a peninsula in North Eastern Venezuela which was even in 1959, being exploited manually five hundred years after its discovery by the Spanish. Margot Benacerraf captures in stunning images, the life of the “salineros” and their ancient, ardous brutalised methods of work before their disappearance with the arrival of the modern world and its industry.
Using stylised photography and poetic commentary, Benacerraf captures this strange, awful and yet beautiful lifestyle in a very alien, and alienated, location.
Director: Margot Benacerraf
Writers: Margot Benacerraf, Pierre Seghers
Features: José Ignacio Cabrujas, Laurent Terzieff
Link to Sands Films