Spilling salt/Antes que se tire la sal

Will the remaining mineral resources of the Earth, found in the most remote and beautiful locations, ever be used to benefit the indigenous peoples who live there? That is the question being asked of several very impressive documentaries in recent years, and this is the latest of them. The film begins as a visual odyssey to the Bolivian salt flats, a place of lyrical and hypnotic beauty and silence. It then progresses into a compelling political essay about the consequences of very lucrative lithium mining that is beginning to threaten that natural beauty. Will the Bolivians benefit from the lithium? Is this good for the planet? This movie appeals to both the heart and the mind, to the politics as well as the ethics. It is every bit the equal of Rachel Boynton's Big Men, about the exploitation of Ghana's offshore oil reserves and the political struggles it caused, and continues to cause, in that country.

These documentaries about the indigenous people's struggles over the sovereignty of their mineral resources are much more compelling, and address the same issues, as the less successful activist-centered documentaries about global warming.