Courtesy of Caroni Films C.A.

Dir. Margot Benacerraf
1959 | Venezuela | NR
Runtime: 1 hour, 30 min

For over 500 years, Venezuela's Araya peninsula has been mined for its salt by hand. Benacerraf's poetic documentary captures three families of salineros across the arid marshes. Shot in black and white, Araya captures a labor and trade preserved since salt was traded like gold, continuing as an embattled way of life on the peninsula. Lenfest is excited to share this film in 35mm, in a print created by Milestone Films from their 2009 restoration project.

Associate Professor, Film and Media Studies, Elizabeth Ramírez-Soto, celebrates the centennial of one of Latin America’s foremost directors and promoters of film culture: the Venezuelan filmmaker Margot Benacerraf (1926–2024). To honor the legacy of this foundational figure, whose passion for cinema was ignited during her time at Columbia University, we will screen her majestic debut feature film, Araya. Premiered in Cannes in 1959, Benacerraf’s breathtaking essay film, set against the backdrop of unforgiving salt marshes, remains an ode to the daily rhythms of human labor of unparalleled beauty.

Professor Ramírez-Soto will be joined in conversation for a post-screening discussion by Leticia Berrizbeitia Añez, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Cinema Studies at New York University.