Starring: Sebastiao Salgado, Wim Wenders, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado.
Distributor: Madman Entertainment
Runtime: 111 mins. Reviewed in May 2015
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This humane documentary combines the story of the Brazilian photographer, Sebastiao Salgado, with a gallery of his powerful photographs, taken over many decades, and a study of the people and places where he photographed.
The narrative begins with photographs of the silver mine in Brazil, the many gnarled characters scaling rocks, drilling, all eager to find some silver – and the commentary adds that people are the salt of the earth.
Celebrated film director, Wim Wenders, tells us that he came across one of these portraits, a study of a woman, and has had it hanging over his desk for many years. Which means that he was very pleased to be associated with this film, co-directing with the photographer’s son, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, a cinematographer himself.
Introduced to the gallery with black-and-white photographs of the silver mine, the audience will be in intrigued as to the background of the photographer himself. He came from a poor family in Brazil, moved to the city for further education, especially in economics, got a job, married, and seemed to have a future in international companies with economic advice. However, he loved photography and decided that would give his full time to this work, supported by his wife who managed his photos, cataloguing, especially when on long trips.
Which he did. In those days, in the 1960s and 70s, he was tall and thin and rugged, wild hair and long beard. As he is interviewed for this film, often with super impositions of his face on locations and photographs, he is older and bald, but intensely serious, a lifetime of concern for his subjects and with profound and moving reflections.
Among the journeys he took was across South America, taking almost a decade. He is also shown visiting West Papua with its jungles and indigenous people. The journey which he found most heart-wrenching was that to Ruanda at the time of the genocide in 1994, observing, photographing, being caught up in the deep distress, finding that he could not go on photography expeditions for several years.
What caused him to be involved again was his awareness of the environment, the depredation of forests in his native Brazil, and his setting up an institute with his wife for the reforestation. Audiences will be amazed at the number of trees and the depth of the forests that have resulted from these initiatives. This also gave fresh impetus to his photography career, starting a Genesis Project, focusing on nature – and people – especially with intriguing photography of his working with the Brazilian jungle native community long hidden from “civilisation”.
By the end of the film, photographed in some detail by his son, co-directed by Wenders, the audience will have had a masterclass in photography but also a masterclass in human compassion, seeking out the salt of the earth and communicating something of their destinies, lives, hopes.
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