Movie Review - The Salt of the Earth

The Salt of the Earth ***½ (out of 5) (PG-13) This documentary of journalistic photographer Sebastião Salgado delivers a fine tribute to a brave artist, while posing the possible imminence of our self-imposed extinction, and illustrating why that just may be the fate we deserve. For much of the 20th century and beyond, this Brazilian native chronicled some of the best - but mostly the worst - of harm we’ve inflicted on each other and to this planet for whatever political, economic, religious or cultural reasons held sway at the time. He covered the globe with his cameras, allowing all to see intimate details of human folly...and worse.

Salgado, whether by design or happenstance, chronicled wars, poverty, starvation, genocides, extant forms of slavery and ecocide with his cameras on several continents. He informed us most by daring to venture where local political or economic overlords wanted him least, in Africa, Eastern Europe, the Arabian Peninsula, the Arctic Circle or his own continent.

He saw the lush agricultural region of his youth decline into near-desert condition from rapacious industry practices and climate change. That, along with the cumulative overdose of oppression, waste and cruelties he’d witnessed, led to a drastic change in his life. He stopped shining light on our dark side to begin modeling solutions. He and his family revitalized the ecosystem around his family’s farm as a start on establishing a foundation to do the same in other devastated regions. What worked in Brazil could be adapted to virtually any spot on the planet that had ever been habitable.

Salgado’s life has been fascinating. He emerges as a man to admire, without the need for a hard sell within the script. The power of his photos is apparent in this expanded medium, even for those with little prior knowledge of his work or the events he documented. If you’re not already too discouraged about how horrid we humans, as a species, have proven to be, the upbeat final segment just might spur thoughts about your own possibilities for righting this ship before we all sink. (5/8/15)