Although Wim
Wenders traces the 40-year career of Sebastião Salgado in The Salt of the Earth, and the documentary is co-directed by the
photographer’s son, Ribeiro Salgado, much of the film’s focus becomes about the
events covered rather than the life of the artist behind the images. This
weighs down the content, especially with many of the tragic social situations
around the world that Salgado has chosen as his subjects, but any less depth
would have been too superficial for the material. Even 110 minutes doesn’t feel
like enough time to adequately examine Salgado’s personal background along with
his work, though an uplifting final section does help alleviate the somber tone
surrounding much of his earlier photography.
For most of
Salgado’s career, he traveled around the world to witness some of the more
horrific events in human history. The Brazilian photographer traveled to
witness the droughts and famine that wreaked havoc on the populations in areas
of Africa, particularly Ethiopia Rwanda ,
and genocide in the Congo
The film, like
Salgado’s work, is split up into sections for the documentary. Each segment
coincides with the each of the books of photography that he has released over
the years, leading up to his latest endeavor. These books include “Other
Americas,” “Workers,” “Sahel – The End of the Road,” “Migrations,” “Africa ,” and his most recent, “Genesis.” It is within his
most recent work that The Salt of the Earth finds respite from the bleak human
suffering previously captured, as “Genesis” became a celebration of nature
instead. Along with his photography in the Galapagos, Salgado helped to found
the Instituto Terra, an organization that helped to save and rebuild a section
of the rainforest in his home country of Brazil
Even Salgado’s
personal life is somewhat tainted by hardship. Despite a longstanding
supportive working relationship shared with his wife Leila, their youngest son
was born with Down syndrome. Although there is plenty of optimism and joy coming
from the discussion of this, it still weighs heavy on the mood of a film
already filled with so much misfortune and pain. This is another way that the
film is elevated by the personal connection from co-director Juliano. And yet, The Salt of the Earth never really digs
too deep into Salgado’s psyche. In many ways, we are able to know much more
about the man from his photographs than any biographical information the
documentary offers.
The Blu-ray
release of this Academy Award Nominated documentary includes a filmmaker
commentary track, as well as a brief featurette with the two directors looking
back on the experience of making this film. Additionally, there are a handful
of deleted scenes. The one thing absent I would have expected or hoped to find in
the extras is a gallery of Salgado’s significant photography, or at least those
contained within the film.
Entertainment Value:
6/10
Quality of
Filmmaking: 8.5/10
Historical
Significance: 8/10
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