Mar 30 2018
My Name Is Salt
Every year 40,000 villagers migrate to the desert after the yearly monsoon hits to begin mining salt for the next eight months. My Name Is Salt, is a documentary that was filmed in 2014 to give outsiders a glimpse into the hard realities of salt mining. The film has minimal talking and lots of silence other than the sounds of the pumps, mud being moved, and nails being hammered into machinery. Farida Pacha, who is the producer, said that the most important sound in the film was, “the pump, which is like a heartbeat through the film.” The documentary follows a man named Sanabhai, who is a perfectionist, and his family while they are living in the desert from September until April trying to harvest the most pure white salt. He lives in the desert with his wife, two children and some other relatives in a tent. Each member of the family takes on a role in the salt harvesting and even the children work in the mornings until they attend school during the day. In order to harvest the salt Sanabhai had to take out a loan from a salt merchant before he began his mining season in the desert, in order to afford all the equipment. By the time April arrives the salt merchant he says that Sanabhai’s crystals are not white enough and are too small in size. Because of this Sanabhai will not make as much money as he had anticipated for the season. After the season comes to a close, the families will move back to their homes before the anual monsoon washes away all their seasons work.
