The Salt of the Earth
Director: Juliano Ribeiro Salgado and Wim Wenders
Year Released: 2014
Rating: 2.5
Wenders shows off the work of globetrotting Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado - with the help of Salgado's son, Juliano - and allows Salgado to describe his images, which are mostly of people suffering or dying (later on, with his "Genesis" series, he would turn to nature photography). There's no denying the haunting power of Salgado's work, but Wenders doesn't allow for critical commentary on them (it's too much of a family affair, with Salgado's wife Lélia making an appearance) - for example, one could argue he's made a name for himself exploiting agony and death (his corpses are as well-composed as his expertly-framed pics of, say, walruses gathering on the shore). In the last third, when the documentary turns to Salgado's work building a forest, it's a nice break from the world-horrors ... and something out of Candide.
