Directed by Margot Benacerraf • 1959 • Venezuela
A work of such overwhelming grandeur that Jean Renoir told director Margot Benacerraf after viewing the film, “Above all . . . don’t cut a single image,” this poetic documentary-narrative hybrid is a landmark of both neorealist and feminist South American cinema. For five hundred years, the Araya peninsula in northeastern Venezuela has been mined for its salt. Through images of breathtaking beauty, Benacerraf captures the everyday lives of three families and their back-breaking work in the salt marshes, exquisitely preserving an embattled but tenacious way of life.
Up Next in Women Make Film
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The Connection
Directed by Shirley Clarke • 1961 • United States
Starring Warren Finnerty, Jerome Raphel, Garry GoodrowShirley Clarke made a splash—and ignited a landmark censorship case—with her controversial feature debut, an innovative adaptation of Jack Gelber’s off-Broadway play in which the line between...
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The House Is Black
Directed by Forugh Farrokhzad • 1963 • Iran
The only film directed by trailblazing feminist Iranian poet Forough Farrokhzad finds unexpected grace where few would think to look: a leper colony whose inhabitants live, worship, learn, play, and celebrate in a self-contained community cut off from ...
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Something Different
Directed by Věra Chytilová • 1963 • Czechoslovakia
The debut feature from Věra Chytilová interweaves two stories simultaneously: one a narrative about a frustrated mother (Vera Uzelacová) discontented with the drudgery of housework, the other a quasi documentary about a gymnast (real-life Olympi...
