The Salt of the Earth (2014 film)

The Salt of the Earth
Film poster
Directed by	Wim Wenders Juliano Ribeiro Salgado
Produced by	Wim Wenders Lélia Wanick Salgado David Rosier Julia de Abreu Fakhrya Fakhry Andrea Gambetta Christine Ponelle
Written by	Wim Wenders Juliano Ribeiro Salgado David Rosier
Music by	Laurent Petitgand
Cinematography	Hugo Barbier Juliano Ribeiro Salgado
Edited by	Maxine Goedicke Rob Myers
Production company	Decia Films
Distributed by	Le Pacte
Release date	20 May 2014 (2014-05-20) (Cannes) 15 October 2014 (2014-10-15) (France) 26 March 2015 (2015-03-26) (Brazil)
Running time	110 minutes
Country	France Italy Brazil
Language	French Portuguese Italian English
Box office	$3.6 million

The Salt of the Earth is a 2014 internationally co-produced biographical documentary film directed by Wim Wenders and Juliano Ribeiro Salgado. It portrays the works of Salgado's father, the Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado.

The film was selected to compete in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival where it won the Special Prize. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary at the 87th Academy Awards. It won the 2014 Audience Award at the San Sebastián International Film Festival and the 2015 Audience Award at the Tromsø International Film Festival. It also won the César Award for Best Documentary Film at the 40th César Awards.

Salgado's work explored natural environments and the humans who inhabit them. His black and white photographs illuminated how the environment and humans are exploited to maximize profit for the global economic market.

The film follows Salgado as he began a career as an economist with his wife, Lélia, at his side. During a stint in Paris, Lélia bought a camera, and Salgado discovered his love of photography.

Following the timeline of his life, the film uses his own photos and videos to illustrate Salgado's life and work beginning with his exile from Brazil and his subsequent transition from economist to artist and explorer Salgado began working full time as a photographer in 1973, first news photography then documentary style, with Lelia supporting him.

The film follows him as he travels around South America, including the countries neighboring his native Brazil, spending time among and photographing native tribes, living lives not much touched by the modern world.