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.

The Araya film made ​​in 1959 by Venezuelan filmmaker Margot Benacerraf allows us to reflect on the importance of this place, not only in the twentieth century, but for all seasons , at the beginning of the movie there is a narrative about what happened when, during the colonization , these salt were discovered , and the incredible beauty of this finding was disclosed to the Spanish monarchy , for this a fortification was built in this place, to protect it from invaders. Throughout this film the hard work in the salt is evident , working hours of workers, their dedication , skill and sacrifice shown . In the movie the lives of three families is narrated: Salazar, Pereda and Ortiz, these people are intertwined and we can see how difficult it was to work in the salt mines in the 1950s, pictures of the currency used to pay shown the salt workers often replace the official currency and could buy them in warehouses and other establishments in the region,is considered cultural heritage of Venezuela and a classic of world cinema, this movie should not be seen as a documentary because it was not the intention of Benacerraf, her goal was to tell the story of the people and their work in the salt mines,it is filmed in three locations: Araya, El Rincon and Manicuare and people who appear in the film belong to these places and they are not actors.This film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 1959 , the talented Margot Benacerraf is an example trump international scopes , she became the salt of Araya a known and important place elsewhere in the world , she also honored and immortalized through the film work of employees of the salt , worthy of respect and admiration . She created the National Cinemateque in 1966 giving the necessary importance to the art of cinema.This movie is amazing and really inspirational .

So the second film I have seen at the 2009 London Film Festival, was bizarrely (for a film made in 1959), the UK premiere. This movie played at Cannes in 1959, but since then pretty much disappeared, at least in the English language world. It's a Venezuelan film, made by a lady called Margot Benacerraf, she made this and one other film before ceasing film-making entirely and entering into the cultural bureaucracy of Venezuela, founding for example the Cinemateca Nacional.The film is shot on the peninsula of Araya, which is basically dead land abutting onto a salt marsh and then the sea. The land doesn't support anything, there's practically no rainfall, most of the land is not much different from baked bones and dust. There is in one part of the peninsula what is described as a forest, but is too puny too justify that term, arid brittle branches primordially struggling to live. For the inhabitants of the peninsula this is their only supply of wood.So in Araya, there are only really two professions, you're either a fisherman or a salinero (salt miner). The salineros cut mine from the salt marshes and bring it to the shore, they get 50 cents for a 140 pound basket of salt, which they have to crush to a powder and clean. They do all this without the aid of machinery. Because salt is toxic when handled day in day out they often get ulcers all down their exposed skin.It's a very simple monotonous life, and whole families are involved in the human conveyor process of bringing the Arayan salt to where it can be loaded for delivery.It's shot very well, and very poetically, there's also a voice-over that follows the movie the whole way through. I think the voice-over occasionally became more sombre and poetical than the subject matter demanded. I think there's also an extent where it's a false documentary, at least I was feeling suspicious about that, it seems a lot of the scenes are being done for the camera. They film the entire movie almost without reference to machinery, only to have it appear quite conspicuously at the end. So the movie well may have been shot as a time capsule to preserve the way of life that had gone before pre-machinery and was coming to an end. It would be better I think if they had maybe more conspicuously framed it like that at the start. That's a little unfair, I mean the way they did it was good, but it felt deceptive.Whilst some of the poetry is a little overwrought, there was a great moment where this woman, who was in charge of the scales had her eyes described as being hard and bright like the salt, and then when she is back in the pueblo, they are soft and bright. The poet got that spot on, her eyes did look exactly like that.The way the cemetery is decorated in the movie is really poignant as well. So I think this film is well worth watching. It has recently been restored by Milestone, and I think there is a fundraising effort going on in the US at the moment, lead by Margot Benacerraf (still alive!). It may well be released on DVD by Milestone in R1 over the next couple of years.

"Araya" is a movie that makes you want to cry... it is so beautiful in its black and white and its simpleness that it's an equivalent of Neorealism but without the sadness. This movie shared the Cannes Award with none other than "Hiroshima, mon amour", althought it has had less luck in becoming a well known film. Its director founded the Cinemateca Nacional (a place where one can see many good old movies) and is also President of Fundavisual Latina, so although she hasn't directed anyome she continues to work on cinema.