Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Araya

documentary

This was an extraordinary relic from 1959. A film team went to a remote area of the Venezuelan coast and recorded the life-style of a people who had worked there as either fishermen or salt workers since the Spanish invasion. The cine was exquisite and alone worth the price of admission. Some scenes were obviously staged...not really a problem.

Voiceover was used throughout which mostly worked even though some was self-consciously poetic. Near the end footage of the machines that were even then taking over provided a pang in the viewer...the lives of these folks we just got to know were about to change forever. Such is "progress."

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