My Name is Salt 2013
Distributed by Documentary Educational Resources, 101 Morse Street, Watertown, MA 02472; 617-926-0491
Produced by Lutz Konermann, Farida Pacha
Directed by Farida Pacha
DVD, color, 92 min.
College - General Adult
Documentaries, Family, Labor, Child Labor, Food, Business
Date Entered: 07/15/2016
Reviewed by Irina Stanishevskaya, University of Alabama at Birmingham Libraries“Year after year, for eight months, thousands of families in Kutch, Gujarat, India are attracted to the desert to bring salt from the burning ground. Each monsoon the salt fields are washed away, and the desert turns into the sea. Nevertheless, the salt workers return, proudly to produce the whitest salt of the earth” – My Name is Salt
My Name is Salt is an eye-opening and shocking documentary concerning the working conditions of the poorly paid salt workers in the Little Rann of Kutch saline desert in India. The filmmakers use the lens of the camera to observe the life and working conditions of one family during the production season starting with their arrival to the salt marsh area, then documenting every step in the labor-intensive preparation of the salt evaporation ponds, harvest time, and finally in negotiation with a trader who underpays for the total labor of work. Extensive time is spent silently recording the problems the family faces every single day during the eight months of working on the fields such as technical issues with the pump, harsh environmental conditions like salt dust, direct sunlight, rains and sandstorms, as well as limited access to drinking water, and lack of access to nutritional food, health services, and education services for their children.
Despite the fact that the documentary is skillfully done with thorough details capturing the daily routines of all members of the family and the traditional methods of the production of the best salt in the world, the film does not have any kind of narration. It is a purely observational film. On the one hand, this technique gives the audience a chance to immerse themselves in the life of the family in their natural settings without any influence of the filmmakers’ criticisms or judgments. On the other hand, without narration or an explanatory statement in the beginning it is difficult to understand where the story is situated within a greater context and to appreciate the scope of the problem. I highly recommend exploring the official film website and learning about the subject of the documentary before watching it.
The quality of the video is excellent and the cinematography expertly done by Lutz Konermann. The language of the short dialogs is in Gujarati with English subtitles. The documentary is appropriate for public and academic library collections and can be an eye- opening experience for anyone interested learning more about salt production issues, migrant labor, and exploitation of salt workers.
Awards:
- Best Feature Length Documentary, Best Cinematography, Mumbai International Film Festival, 2016
- Audience Award, Provinziale Film Festival, Germany, 2016
- Al Jazeera Documentary Film Festival Award, Doha, Qatar, 2015
- Best Documentary, Balkan New Film Festival, Sweden, 2015
- Best Film Award, EcoCup, Moscow 2015
- Best of Fest Award, Best Cinematography, CMS Vatavaran Environment & Wildlife Film Festival, New Dehli, India, 2015
- Horizante Award, Five Lakes Film Festival, Bavaria, Germany, 2015
- Cinematography Award, BIDF, Budapest 2014
- Firebird Award, Hong Kong International Film Festival, 2014
- Best Documentary Award, Baikal Film Festival, Irkutsk, 2014
- First Appearance Award, International Documentary Film Festival, Amsterdam, 2013