All language subtitles for The Salt of the Earth (2014).ENG

- Art Subs -
Tribute to Sebasti�o Salgado

A film about life
from a photographer?

Perhaps I should start by remembering
the origin of this word.

In Greek, 'fas' means light,

and 'graf�' means to write,
to design.

A photographer is, literally,
someone who draws with light.

Someone who draws the world
with lights and shadows.

Serra Pelada,
a gold mine in Brazil,

in front of me.

When I reached the edge
this huge hole

all the hair on my body
they bristled.

I had never seen
nothing like that.

In fractions of a second,
I saw it pass before me

the history of humanity.

The history of construction
of the pyramids,

from the Tower of Babel,

of King Solomon's mines.

There was not the slightest noise
of machines in there.

What was only heard

it was the murmur of 50 thousand people
inside a huge hole.

Conversations, noise,
human noise,

mixed
with manual labor.

It seemed to have returned
to the beginning of time.

I could almost hear
the murmur of gold in these souls.

That land needed
be completely removed.

Not everything was gold.

They needed to climb all this
to leave.

First by small stairs,
then big stairs,

until you get to the top.

And be careful not to fall.

Falling, it would take others with it.

Climb these stairs
several times a day,

but it never crossed my mind
to fall,

because no one hunts.

We weren't there to fall
and yes for carrying bags

or take photos, in my case.

They climbed all this
about 50 or 60 times a day.

The only way to get down
such a slope,

It's running.

If you try to stop, you fall.

This whole crowd was a world
extremely organized.

However, in total revelry.

It gives the impression that they are slaves.

But there wasn't there
a single slave.

The slavery that could exist
it was the desire to get rich.

Everyone wanted to get rich.

There were all kinds of people,

intellectuals,
people with a university degree,

farm employees,

workers
of civil construction.

Everyone taking their chances.

Because when you found out
a lode of gold

everyone who participated
that piece of mine

had the right to choose
a bag.

And in the chosen bag
for that person

it was slavery in fact.

The bag could contain nothing
or contain one kilogram of gold.

The much-desired independence
was disputed at that time.

Every man
who felt 'gold fever'

never get rid of it.

I discovered this photo
in a gallery,

for more than 20 years.

I didn't know who had taken it.

I imagined the person was
both a great photographer

and an adventurer.

Behind the photo there was a stamp
and a signature:

Sebastião Salgado.

I bought the copy.

The seller took it from a drawer
more photos by the same photographer.

What I saw
it moved me deeply,

especially this image.

The portrait of a Tuareg woman,
blind.

She still leaves me moved
and I see her every day.

Well, it's on my desk
since then.

One thing I soon realized
about Sebastião Salgado,

that he really cared
with people.

This is important to me.

After all, people are
the salt of the Earth.

We ended up meeting

and talking about his life,

of your work

and about the origin of it all.

SALT OF THE EARTH

SALT OF THE EARTH

SALT OF THE EARTH

If you gather

several photographers
in the same place,

each one will take different photos.

This is because, of course,

they come from different locations,
very different.

Each develops
the way of seeing

depending on its history.

I think in my story,

I learned to develop
my way of seeing, here,

in this place.

Here, I have an ideal of the planet.

I took long walks on foot
together with my father,

through these mountains,

and we came here
to watch.

Behind each
of these mountains

there is a story,
there is something to be seen.

I dreamed a lot, standing here.

I wanted to go beyond
of these mountains,

I wanted to find out.

A JOURNEY
WITH SEBASTIÃO SALGADO

WEST PAPUAN RANGE OF RANGE
INDONSIA, YALI VILLAGE, 2011

This was Sebastião Salgado.

Sebastian father.

He bequeathed the name
to his only son

that even becoming
an active traveler all his life

took advantage of the studies that his father
forced him to study,

in a way that this father
never would have imagined.

Economic studies
allowed him to understand

global market,
of commerce and industry.

That's why he knew
what made the world go round.

It all started in little Aimor�s,

on the border of Minas Gerais
with Holy Spirit.

There was his father's farm,

under a huge sky,
between the Atlantic forest and the river,

in navigable season.

And there were the trains...

charging non-stop,
iron ore

from Minas Gerais
to the rest of the world.

It was and is, after all, one of the greatest
mining zones on the planet.

That's where Sebastião grew up.
Only child, with seven sisters.

What a beautiful life!

During summers,

played on the banks of the Rio Doce.

In Rio Doce...

That's where we are now.

And also, our small team
of filming.

Sebastião, stay there.

I just learned something...

It's worse to film a photographer

than anyone else.

It's not just not to be quiet
and do what you want,

as, by professional tic,
react and respond

using your preferred weapon:
the camera.

And he always responds by shooting.

- Wim, I took a beautiful photo of you.
- Me too, but I don't show it.

I can only imagine!

In this case,
He didn't just photograph me...

There were two of us
in your framework.

The other, my colleague in the direction,

was his eldest son,
Julian.

With your camera,
he had already

accompanied by his father
on several trips,

such as Papua New Guinea,
seen before in this film.

Or here, on a remote island

in the north
of the East Siberian Sea.

How would you like
to have gone with them.

Hence, they invited me to participate
of the rest of the documentary,

I think to have
an external view of the adventure.

I didn't hesitate for a second.

What more could I ask for?

Finally, I could
meet that man,

discover your motivations

and the reason why
his work

had made such an impact on me.

Little did I know
What would I discover in him?

much more
than a simple photographer.

Sebastião was 15 years old

when you caught the train
and left his little town.

He was going to college
in Victoria,

capital of the neighboring state.

At first, the young man didn't even know
what it was like to have money in your pocket.

He had never paid anything.

The farm produced
everything they needed.

I didn't have the courage
to enter a restaurant

and starved
the first weeks in the capital.

We are in the dark

about what would become of Sebastian

If this young woman hadn't
appeared in the frame.

Lilia.

I was 17 years old, studying music
and she was incredibly beautiful.

It was love at first sight.

When he got a scholarship

to study
the master's degree in economics from USP,

they moved in and got married.

It was the 1960s.

Both military
in leftist movements,

just like other students
in Paris, Berlin or Chicago.

Brazil was commanded
by a brutal dictatorship

and they were at risk daily
of being arrested,

tortured and deported.

In August 1969,

Sebasti�o and L�lia leave Brazil

embarking for France.

As he continued
his economics studies,

Lúlia studied architecture.

One fine day, she bought
a camera

for her work.

And who had fun with the machine
It was Sebastian.

The first photo, obviously,
It was from Lúlia.

Then he got a job
in the Organization

International Coffee

and they moved to London.

He intended to make a career
at the World Bank

and always went to Africa

to work
in development projects.

I took Lúlia's machine

and always came back
bringing lots of photos.

By understanding
that these photographs

gave him much more pleasure
that economic reports,

they both took
a bold decision.

He would take a huge risk

of abandoning the promising
economist career

to start over from scratch.

They returned to Paris
and invested what they had

in expensive
photographic equipment.

For a while, Sebastião tried
photographing sports,

took portraits, did weddings
and even naked,

before finding
the vocation you have.

Niger, 1973

These are
my first photos.

We were in Tahoua.

There were young mothers in line

to receive food,

because there was a great drought
in Nigeria in 1973.

For L�lia it was more difficult
because she was pregnant.

I remember once
that we were there,

staying at a friend's house,
in Niamey,

The Marabout of Niamey
approached.

L�lia was wearing shorts
and she was very attractive.

He came close, sat down,

and said to Lúlia:

"Get out of there, come sit here,
in my lap!"

I spoke:

"Mr marabout,
we have a small problem.

"This woman is pregnant with...

our first child. "

"Then it's better
If she stays here..."

And he understood...
the lack of...

of synchronization of the moment.

And, well...

In the end, we talked so much
that he took 1kg of sugar

and went away, so happy,
as if he had taken Lúlia.

The son Juliano was born in Paris
in 1974.

There's my future colleague
and co-director.

Young mother,

L�lia continued to support
Sebastião, full of desire.

Along with studies,
worked

and publicize the work
of Sebastião where he could,

magazines, newspapers and agencies.

After a few
relevant publications,

they plucked up courage
to start

the first big
own photographic project:

"Other Americas"

Sebastian would travel
all of South America.

Little Juliano got used to
with his father's great absences.

OTHER AMERICAS
1977- 1984

Since we left Brazil,
in 1969,

I missed you a lot
of Latin America.

I made the decision
to travel

by countries neighboring Brazil.

Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia...

And I dreamed a lot of meeting
the mountains of Latin America.

The Andes.

At that time, there were
profound social unrest

of Liberation Theology.

On this trip I met in Ecuador
a young priest

named Gabicho.

We were almost the same age.

I was a young photographer,
and he, young priest.

He was the one taking
the word of God

and organized the peasants
in cooperatives,

spreading solidarity.

And how he possessed

this whole community
at your fingertips,

I was able to travel
impressive.

Here, we were
over 3,000 meters high.

Sometimes we go up to 600,
700 meters in a single day.

But I enjoyed it immensely
life in this landscape

and in these communities.

These are the saraguros,

an indigenous group
from southern Ecuador.

Very Catholic,
but also great drinkers.

More than half of the community,
on weekends,

whether men or women,

they were completely drunk.

The peasant on the left

her name was Lupe, from Guadeloupe.

Lupe became a very good friend of mine.

At that time,
I had long hair,

light hair, very long.

He had a long beard,
redhead, fair.

Walking together through the mountains,

One day he approached and said:
"Look, Sebastian,

I know you
He is sent from heaven. "

Because according to a legend
of the saraguros,

the gods, in the image of Christ,

returned to Earth
to see them, to observe them

and choose which ones deserved or not
go to Heaven.

Walking these trails,
he told me about his life.

I was sure I was someone
coming there to watch them

and count up there
if they were behaving.

I have never encountered in my life
an entire people living

in another rhythm of time like this.

I had the impression that I had passed
a hundred years there

because everything was so... slow...

It was another way of thinking,
another speed.

On their faces there was fatalism.

This is in the State of Oaxaca,
in Mexico.

It's a group of peasants
known as mixes.

Everything is medieval, the plow...
All...

It was deep Latin America.

They are a country people.

The most important thing for them

it was the music.

They loved music.

Every member of the community
who knew how to play something

I didn't need to work.

He worked as a musician.

They let me sleep there,
a few days,

in a cement warehouse,
very cold.

It was a test to see
if I really wanted to stay.

How I managed, for a long time,

they took me out of there and took me
for a house and...

I integrated myself more into the community.

It ended up being great.

We became friends

and lived in harmony
with the community.

Here is north of Mexico,
are the Tarahumaras.

They are great runners,
They are sprinters.

Their walk is running.

God, it was hell following them.

They didn't walk, they flew.

This is a Tarahumara.

Your face is well marked,
well lived.

And beautiful hair,
fantastic hair.

There were those who approached
from the camera

giving the impression that I had
a sound recorder.

They told me things

like I'm recording
what they said.

The strength of the portrait,
It's just that in that fraction of a second

we understand a little about life
of the person photographed.

The eyes count a lot,
the expression on the face too.

When taking a portrait
It's not just you who takes the photo,

the person offers you the photo.

This trip was so important
for me.

Back, after years
without being able to set foot in my country

and being able to be here.

In essence it was the same.

It was my continent,
we are so close.

'Other Americas' meant
8 years of work by Sebastião.

On these trips
to the heart of Latin America,

he disappeared
for long periods of time.

Juliano grew up,
having an absent father.

Parents could send
and receive letters, at least.

At the time there was no
satellite communication.

Every time he came back
to see the family

and edit photos
together with L�lia,

in the eyes of the son,
Sebastian appeared

as the great adventurer.

A super hero,
much more than the photographer.

And... Cut!

Cut to me.

Here I am, 30 years later,

when I traveled with my father
for the first time.

We were in Wrangel,

a desert island,
in the Arctic Ocean.

Sebastião wanted to photograph

the last big meeting
of walruses

and I wanted to find out
what my real father was like.

During that trip,

finally,
I would hang out with the photographer

and with the adventurer.

Damn bear!

We are his prey.

Unbelievable! The bear
scared them all into the water.

What are you thinking about?

What are you thinking about, dad?

Thinking I don't know.

It's going to be complicated
to make this story.

If that's the good thing...?

�... There's a difference
that the bear is close.

You can make a bear.
Photos of a bear, close up.

But when the picture is not good,

you have a bear document,

but you don't have
no photo of the bear.

Here the location is not good.

There's nothing behind.
There's nothing for it,

I don't know... to compose the photo,
to help with the painting.

There is no action!
There's nothing.

Impressive!

I saw a time inside the lens,
I only saw the teeth coming out.

You didn't understand
the head photo.

Impressive, right?

It gave the impression of being
in Dante's hell,

Only teeth showing

with those shapes.
Amazing!

My baby brother would never be
able to go to school.

I would never learn to read
or writing like me.

Rodrigo would be
isolated in a world

of which never
we would share.

It was very hard for my parents.

But then something happened
that changed everything.

Thanks to his love,

Rodrigo developed
a language of its own.

Slowly,

little by little
we learn to decipher

his emotional alphabet,

communicating without words.

Shortly afterwards, my mother,
my brother and I caught

a plane to Brazil.

The dictatorship had collapsed.
I was 5 years old.

I didn't realize
the importance of that trip.

At a given moment,
a man opened the blind

and the light of day
flooded the aircraft.

His voice echoed through the cabin:

"We are flying over Brazil!"

My mother rushed
to open hers and look.

But she was silent.

There was so much time
that she didn't see her country.

It was a moment of so much joy,

but when she turned to me...
she was crying.

As for my father,

he was in French Guiana
and he would meet us later.

It was December 31st
and I returned to Brazil.

It was fantastic
being able to return to my homeland,

after 10 and a half years away.

It was scary.

Lilia didn't recognize
the Victory he had left.

The urbanization of Vitória had changed.
Everything was changed.

My neighborhood had changed a lot.

I found my parents again.

When I left them
they were still young and strong.

When I came back,
I found them elderly.

My father, already very old.

At this moment I wanted

see Brazil more deeply.

My sister lent me a car

and traveled for 6 months
across northeastern Brazil.

I didn't know the northeast,

but he had always dreamed of meeting.

Brazil
1981-1983

I found these people
going to have a funeral.

I left the car on the side of the road
and followed them.

Infant mortality
it was very high

in northeastern Brazil.

These are children who died
before baptism.

People believe that when
they are not baptized...

have no right to paradise.

They will stay in the intermediate region,
called 'limbo'.

If a child dies
with eyes closed

because she was baptized
by the divine.

If the eyes were open...

are left like this
so that they can find the way.

Otherwise,
they will wander for eternity.

At that time, coffins were
rented from the church.

It was much cheaper to rent them.

The same coffin could be used
dozens of times.

Here, you can see well
the coffin rental service.

Yes, they are shoes, for sure.

Everything was sold: shoes,
coffins, bananas, vegetables...

popsicles, everything.

It's a part of the world where...

death and life are very,
very close.

Here, a group saying prayers

and also political work
at the same time.

We had in Brazil
and we continue to have...

a big movement
of landless peasants.

Most movements
of the landless have their origins here.

They were born here,
in northeastern Brazil.

They are people...

of a moral... force,

a physical force...

Even though they are fragile...
due to lack of food.

Look at the aridity of the region.
It's very arid.

That's right... there's a part
of the Sahel in Brazil.

And there, on the road...

people leave
to never return.

Sometimes the earth remains
so dry, so difficult...

that people emigrate
to nowhere and from there to the south.

And the place ends.
They abandon the land.

Salgado Family Farm
Minas Gerais, Brazil

Since I arrived in Brazil,
My grandfather's lands are like that.

Dry and arid.

When Sebastião returned
to the farm,

after traveling
through northeastern Brazil,

the place was no longer paradise
whom he had known in his youth.

But he had
something else in mind.

The suffering he had witnessed

had transformed him.

Your role as photographer
had acquired a new meaning.

We understand the urgency
which forced him to travel.

He missed him very much,
but he understood.

SAHEL, THE MAN IN AGONY
1984- 1986

For your next project,

that would take him to the Sahel,
in Africa,

Sebastião joined
to 'Doctors Without Borders'.

Ethiopia, 1984

I worked in Ethiopia in 1984.

And then I continued
throughout the Sahel, 1985, 1986...

In total, I spent almost 2 years
followed in this region,

making a report
about hunger.

There was a refugee camp,

the greatest in history
of humanity, until then.

I had a crazy urge
to show those photos.

To demonstrate that there was
a large portion of humanity

living a huge martyrdom.

And arising from a problem
sharing

and not from a natural catastrophe.

It was a Coptic region.

The people of northern Ethiopia
are strongly Christian,

of enormous humility.

Unable, even with a
child about to die,

to impose yourself on someone.

They prefer to wait.

Look at their condition,
in this field.

In this situation, no one
lasts a long time.

It is said that in such a field
hunger killed X people

due to physical fatigue.

But it is diseases that kill.

When you get cholera,
we dehydrate so quickly

which is lost up to 12 liters
of liquid per day with diarrhea.

You die in two or three days.

Faces so young

and so old
by suffering.

If you take a good look at her face
You will see that it is not old age.

What gives her that look?
It's the empty eyes.

Look how young she is.
See her baby,

and her husband.

Most deaths
It was at night, because of the cold.

Over here, die,
It's like everyday life.

People get used to
with death.

A husband washing his wife
to bury her.

He wears mountain clothes
made with goat skin.

It was another very young woman.

According to Coptic tradition,

the body must be clean
for the encounter with God.

It must be washed completely,
even if...

water is scarce.

Every person who dies
It's a piece of the world that dies.

A father prepares his son
for burial,

Say your last goodbye to him.

It's usually the family
who prepares his dead.

And know that the government
withhold food

and didn't let them arrive
to the population,

how it happened there,

in this field north of Ethiopia.

A political dishonesty
brutal.

TIGRAY REGION
ETIPHIA, 1984

I returned to Ethiopia
at the end of 1984.

The guerrillas had realized
that the government was plundering the region

and began to remove people
to Sudan.

They left
from the entire Tigray region.

There was an attack
of 2 helicopters.

Mi-24s are helicopters
very fast combat

and they shot people
with machine guns.

I took a photo and ran.

Many pregnant women
walking

with the hope that upon arrival,
find food, water...

Finally, the promised land.

I must have passed there

at least another 2 months.

And when I arrived in Sudan...

I saw a lot of these people
working.

This man came from Ethiopia.

Your camel must have been at its limit
or dead,

But he insisted, insisted...

When he reached the doctors
the child was dead.

After having walked so much.

This MSF camp
was being dismantled.

Water is primordial
in these camps

and had become
a big problem.

So it was necessary to move it,
as quickly as possible.

They were huddled together
in UN trucks

to be taken
to a new camp

with a good land,
very fertile,

on the bank of the Blue Nile.

I traveled about 300 to 400km
in these trucks.

Two friends
in the back of the truck.

They continued as if it were
on any given Sunday afternoon...

sitting under a tree,
telling stories.

There was a lot of water.
It is on the bank of the Nile.

But it was here
that people died

why...

there was nothing to eat.

They reached their final martyrdom.

They forgot or couldn't
bring food to the refugees.

There was disorganization
with groceries.

Those who said they would take,
"Yes, yes, yes..."

When they arrived, they didn't bring anything.

MALI, 1985

I ended up in Mali.

There was also a great drought there.

People's skin was
like tree bark.

trees that suffered
with sandstorms,

followed by sandstorms.

There were only women and children.

The men had gone to work
in Libya

or down to Ivory Coast
looking for work,

or emigrated
with the promise to return

and bring food to the family.

But very few returned.

They were not unguarded,

because MSF had done
a huge job.

He had brought great resources
It's the region.

This is my friend Luke,
a Belgian doctor.

Is measuring and weighing
the child.

These children after 15, 20 days

were unrecognizable,
recovered their health.

A little marked
for the rest of your life...

due to lack of nutrients
during growth.

This child was alone.

He carried it in his hand
a small guitar.

He wore rags from a shirt

and had no pants,
nor anything else.

But notice how much determination
in your posture.

It's someone who knew where to go.

In search of other groups,
of a village

with your dog.

A little man of 8, 9 years old.

Sebastião became attached

To the people of the Sahel region.

He went back there countless times.

photographs of him,
the book and the exhibition,

organized by L�lia,

led to public opinion
to question yourself

about the real causes
of this catastrophe.

Sebastian later changed
to a theme, to which he dedicated

another 6 years and countless trips
to almost 30 countries.

WORKERS
1986-1991

The 3rd great photo book
- designed together with L�lia.

I wanted to surrender
a kind of tribute

to all men and women
who built our world.

The archeology of the industrial age.

Sebasti�o and L�lia researched
in depth

and meticulously prepared
the project.

And then Sebastião traveled
across the 4 corners of the world.

Photographed metal workers
in the Soviet Union.

Lived with ship breakers
in Bangladesh.

She sailed with fishermen
of Galicia and Sicily.

Showed the production of cars
in Calcutta.

Observed tea farmers
in Rwanda,

country I had already visited
as an economist.

This time, his mission was different.

His perspective had changed,
but he was still driven...

for the same empathy
with the human condition.

In each chapter
from "Workers"...

Sebastian submerged
deeply

in each specific field
of manufacturing.

Like the weeks that passed

with the miners
from Serra Pelada.

In 1991, at the end
of the 1st Gulf War...

Do you remember? Iraqi troops
they withdrew

and Saddam Hussein set fire to
hundreds of oil wells.

An army of firefighters
from all over the world

reaches the oil fields
in flames.

Sebastião forced himself
to go too,

encouraged by curiosity
for this explosive profession.

KUWAIT, 1991

When seeing the first images
on TV...

came the desire to do
this report.

It was like working
in a big theater.

500 wells burning with fire.

A scenario on an enormous scale,
the size of the planet.

Nothing controlled us,
we could go wherever we wanted.

There were emissions
of dense petroleum smoke.

Smoke so impenetrable
that the sunlight did not pass through.

There were days...

that were night
for 24 hours straight.

After the fire went out,

the ground still remained very much,
but very hot.

It was necessary to throw a lot of water
to cool it down.

Otherwise, the temperature
it was high enough

to light the oil
again.

And yet, sometimes,

there were explosions
that looked like cannons.

The noise was deafening.

It was like working
close to the turbine of an airplane.

Today I'm a little deaf.

My deafness started there.

They are Canadians.

From the Fire Department
from Calgary.

They had brought
a beautiful red truck

and followed a rule.

After fighting the fire,

washed the truck
every night.

And in the morning, the truck was
again covered in oil.

A hell of a job!

I postponed my departure
at least 2 or 3 times,

But the time eventually came.

However...
It was a pain in the heart

abandon
Such a gigantic spectacle.

We went in that direction,

and very close to the end...

we pass on
of a long wall...

On that day,
there was a journalist there

from the New York Times.

As this was no man's land,
the war had destroyed everything,

we broke the gate.

As we enter,

we found a kind of...

paradise...

turned into hell!

It was a kind of garden
of the Kuwaiti royal family.

With thoroughbred horses

who had gone crazy,
desperately crazy.

Animals are the first
escaping a catastrophe

when they are free to escape.

But they were trapped there.

We found birds inside
because it was an oasis.

Everything was very well irrigated.

Birds couldn't fly
because the feathers were stuck together.

The Kuwaitis fled
when I feel the catastrophe coming.

They left behind
the animals locked up, and also

the Bedouins,
whom they do not cherish

as human beings.

"Workers" managed to unite
economist Sebastião Salgado

to the artist in whom
he had transformed.

The photos were published
in the best magazines,

the exhibition traveled the world

and the book was published
in multiple languages.

But Sebastião and Lúlia
They didn't stop there.

Soon afterwards,
started working

in a new great stage
of photographic reports.

They noticed that a burning issue
of our time

it was the displacement
of entire populations

due to wars, hunger
and the rules of the global market.

Thus, while Europe
closed its borders,

Sebastião decided to focus
the fate of the excluded.

With L�lia, they began to research
and make plans

and again it came from her
the creative impulse

for the new chapter of life,
which they called "exodus".

�XODO
1993- 1999

The book tries to awaken
the world consciousness

about everyday life
of all these refugees,

from India, Vietnam, Philippines...

from Latin America, Palestine,
Iraq...

and many other places.

But Sebastião always returned
to the continent

that captured his imagination,
since always.

Africa.

TANZANIA, 1994

I was putting together my project
of population displacement,

in 1994.

That's when
the president of Rwanda...

The plane he was on
had been shot down.

This started a huge
population displacement

to Tanzania,
because it resulted

in brutal repression
against the Tutsi people in Rwanda.

This time,
I was one of the first to arrive.

It was a widespread catastrophe.

Some fled to Burundi,

others to Congo
and for Uganda...

They fled wherever they could.

The roads were already
full of people.

People who slept
at the side of the road

carrying all belongings
on bicycles.

People ran away
with what they could.

We continue in the opposite direction
of this escape.

We headed towards the border.

There were no security guards,
there was nothing.

When I entered Rwanda
it was terrifying.

The number of deaths...
that I found on that road.

A grenade had exploded.

Those who didn't die from the grenade
they were murdered by faction.

It was there
that I understood the dimension...

the magnitude of the catastrophe
who was testifying.

It was genocide
what happened in that country.

It took about 150km to arrive
on the outskirts of Kigali.

There were 150km of bodies.

I returned there because my work
dealt with the populations.

I was making a book
about refugees.

He worked on the "exodus".

So, I entered the camps

and I started to see

the volume of people
who left Rwanda.

The hell that broke out
in paradise.

It was something terrifying

see such a beautiful savannah

transformed into a mega city.

Within a few days, there was
almost a million people.

In the midst of all this anguish
something touched me very much.

He went to see this mother with her son.

And the son's trust
in this mother.

Yugoslavia, 1994- 1945

The violence

and the brutality...

are not the monopoly

of foreigners,
in distant countries.

They are here, 'next to home'
within Europe,

in the former Yugoslavia.

Something extremely shocking.

A bus coming from Krajina
passed through Croatia...

One person was killed
through that hole there.

The Croats killed a lot of people
who was fleeing from Krajina.

A widespread violence,
That's what hurts the most.

It was sad to see,

how contagious is hate,
he understands?

These have seen what violence is.

Entire families.

The entire Serbian population
da Krajina was expelled.

So, suddenly,

people were expelled
from their homes,

Looking for a place to go.

With the 'front neighbor
shooting at you'.

In this refugee camp
near Tuzla,

in Central Bosnia,

They are families that were from Zepa,
from the Zepa enclave,

where the Serbs murdered
thousands of young men.

We were there at the time
in which the families arrived

and settled in.

They were
in a state of enormous bitterness.

There were only women, elderly people

and children.

The youngest men
had been separated

and murdered, one by one.

And the strange thing is that this happens
in Europe,

exactly at the end of the 20th century.

And here, by the cars,
if you see that it was people

who had a certain level of life,
a European level.

A European intellectual level.

A European infrastructure.

And they lost it all.

Hundreds of kilometers
full of people and cars.

We are a very ferocious animal.

We humans,
we are a terrible animal.

Whether in Europe or in Africa,

in Latin America,
everywhere.

We are extremely violent,
in truth.

Our story
It is a story of wars.

It's a story that has no end.

A history of repression,
a story... sick.

Congo, 1994

The situation in Rwanda
it kept getting worse.

The Hutu army
who was in power, lost,

and retreated to the Congo,
to the Goma region.

Before it had been the Tutsi
who had to flee

of Hutu barbarity.

Then it was the Hutu
who fled

with the resumption by the Tutsi.

Therefore, they both fled.

In a few days,
in early July 1994,

the Goma region received
more than two million people.

It was installed there
a real catastrophe.

Diseases such as cholera
began to spread

and the people
they began to die like flies.

12 to 15,000 people died
per day.

I took photos
of piles of dead like these.

I saw this man arrive
with the son in his arms

to throw it onto the stack.

Then he left,
talking to the friend next door,

as if nothing had happened.

It was not possible
bury people.

So they brought tractors
of the French army

who collected the bodies
in heaps, in dozens,

they spread them across the floor...

and covered it with earth.

The whole world
you should see these photos

to see how monstrous
It is the human species.

They are orphaned children
found on the road.

Of these three children,

the two with the brightest eyes
survived.

What has a sad look
was dying.

When leaving there,
I was sick.

Very sick.
My body got sick.

It was not an infectious disease,
but...

my soul was sick.

I returned to Rwanda
a year after the catastrophe.

To cover the return of the Hutus
who were in Congo

and they had nowhere else to go.

The United Nations began
to force them to return to Rwanda.

Rwanda, 1995

It gave the impression
that the entire planet

was covered
by refugee tents.

When I finished my work here,

the Tutsi authorities proposed
that I would see

some places where repression
had happened.

Here people took refuge
in a church

they thought was safe.

They were all murdered.

This scene is from a school.

The blackboard has preserved
what was written

at the moment it happened.

It was terrifying.

Congo, 1997

That population
who fled Rwanda,

around 2 million people,

a part of her returned home.

But many were terrified
of repression.

A batch of 250,000 of them

left the city of Goma
and went to the Congo jungle.

And there they were lost.
It was known that there were 250 thousand.

They disappeared,
no one knew where they were.

Six months later,

they started to appear,
near Kisangani,

in central Congo.

They had stayed in the jungle
for 6 months.

Here, the UN High Commissioner
is taking me to the place.

There was a train
and I went for it.

The train would carry supplies
and would return,

but I said: "I'm staying."

I spent three days with them.

They kept coming,

in waves and waves, endless.

When you think they were
250,000 at the start

and only 40,000 arrived...

210,000 people were missing
that disappeared.

And in parallel,
life went on.

A barber, cutting hair...

There was even a Congolese

with a calculator.

He collected the measly dollars
that people had,

the little currency they have
and he doing the exchange.

In the middle of nowhere.
In a forest isolated from everything.

At a given moment,

the Kisangani guerrilla,
who was pro-Tutsi,

began to make them return.

Back to where they came from.

It would be another 6 months
to return to Rwanda.

The guerrilla began
to kill some of them.

That's when I saw people arrive
to the extreme of existence.

They began to go into delirium,

they lost their heads, in fact.

They became crazy.

In the end,
these people were expelled.

They were never heard from again.

I sincerely believe
who were all murdered.

That was my last trip,
a sad adventure in Rwanda.

Get out of there...

without believing in anything anymore.

I thought there was no way out
for the human species.

Humans were not supposed to survive
to something like that.

We no longer deserve to live.

Nobody deserved it.

I dropped the cameras several times
to cry for what I saw.

Sebastian had disappeared
in the world of shadows.

I questioned deeply
work as a social photographer

and his role as a witness
of the human condition.

After Rwanda, would it make sense
to do something more?

At that time,
my grandfather's health worsened.

My parents needed
return to Brazil

to take care of the farm.

But it was a lost land.

There were no more birds,

nor alligators,
nor the majestic forest,

nor the wonders that were part

of childhood memories
by Sebastian.

And then, Lúlia had
a surprising idea.

"Why not replant
the forest that was there before?"

The forest that was here
and covered all these hills

it was the Atlantic Forest,

the tropical forest
of the Atlantic.

No one had tried yet
replant it.

The more,
around 600 hectares.

Lúlia's suggestion
may have been born of your will

to give new life to the family.

But they rolled up their sleeves

and during the following 10 years

what happened in this space
it was an authentic miracle

who converted
in the so-called “Instituto Terra”.

I remember
that at the beginning of the plantation,

Sometimes, at night, I dreamed
that everything had died.

Because the land was so hideous,
everything was so run down,

that I asked myself:
"Will it work?"

In general, there are in the Atlantic Forest
400 different species.

Of course we didn't have
400 species,

but each time, we planted
100, 150 species...

From the first plantation,
we lost 60%.

From the second, around 40%.

There were no books saying

how to replant
an Atlantic Forest.

I really like coming here

to see
all these trees together.

When you see
all this mass of vegetation

you have an idea of the effort
that was it.

When I was little,

there was a small waterfall here.

All year round
There was water running in this little waterfall.

With my sisters, we walked,
picnic here.

The forest was very thick
at the time.

And then,

when we cut down the forest,
the water disappeared.

For now, our forest is young
and uses a lot of water.

But in 10 or 15 years,
when everything stabilizes,

when
growth stabilizes,

I'm sure there will be again
a beautiful waterfall here.

You can see that there is...

many trails.

Hundreds of trails.

These are cow trails.

With each step of the cow on the ground,
within the footprint perimeter,

there is a charge on the ground
200, 250 kilos.

The soil becomes compacted, loses water,

and nothing can sprout there.

Here it is interesting to observe
the difference.

What was Instituto Terra like?
a smooth pasture like that,

and now it's
a recovered ecosystem,

with two million trees
planted.

Here we see

a cicada
who sang until he died.

She didn't jam her body
in the tree.

These are termite deposits
that are involving her.

Little by little,
will be buried here.

Sometimes we admire the trees
for its height, for its beauty,

but it all depends on them,
our water, our oxygen...

It is the home of the entire world.

Ants, small insects,
cicadas...

Everyone is in the trees.

It's nice to catch a tree
that you planted.

Here she is,
very strong, very resistant.

30 years from now,
she will be thick like that.

For now, she is young,
will still grow.

Look,
here are the very small ones.

Maybe they sprouted
last night,

like Alice,
entering Wonderland.

The most incredible thing that will become
a 40 or 50 meter tree

and live 400 or 500 years.

There is enormous power here.

To think that you are here
is 3 months old

and they will be adults at 400 years old...

Maybe from here,
can be measured

the concept of eternity.

Maybe eternity is
measurable.

At first, we thought:
"Let's plant a forest."

It was just a seed,
then just a little plant.

And now, it's not just a little plant,
There are thousands, millions.

And it's not just here.

It's all around here
and even further.

That's what's wonderful.
A simple idea...

She...

It can evolve, it can grow.

And it will no longer be someone's idea,
but from everyone.

This method can be applied
anywhere.

Of course, species are not
always the same.

But the way to do it is the same.

In all tropical forests.

The earth was the cure

for the lack of hope
by Sebastian.

The joy of seeing
the trees growing

and the water fountains returning

revived his vocation
for photography.

But the family knew
which could not be like before.

We have reached the conclusion

what should be
a new photographic project,

linked to the environment.

Of course the first idea
to emerge

was to denounce
the destruction of forests,

ocean pollution, etc.

But, little by little,
we started to think

to do a different project.

We will pay tribute
to the planet.

And to our surprise,
we discovered

that almost half the planet

continues to be
as on the day of Genesis.

GENESIS
2004- 2013

Several friends told me
so I don't get involved in this.

"It's very risky.

"You are known
as a human, social photographer.

"Go on the field
from the photographers...

of landscapes, of animals. "

I said: "It's okay,
let's do it.

I can learn
photographing that too. "

I started,
and the first story...

I wanted it to be Galápagos.

I wanted to understand
what Darwin had understood.

The same species,

in ecosystems
very different,

have evolved so
very different.

Looking at this detail
of the iguana's paw

I can't stop thinking

in the hand of a warrior
from the middle ages,

covered in metal plates
to protect yourself.

Looking at the structure of this hand,

I can see that the iguana
She's also my cousin.

That we both came
from the same cell.

When we are in front
of such an elderly being

we are in front
of an authority.

With all these wrinkles,
all this knowledge.

Without a doubt,
when Darwin was here

This turtle was already an adult.

She may have seen Darwin.
Who knows?

I remember once,
I was very tired

because I had walked
in a lava field,

for a long time.

I was lying on the beach...

and I felt something touching
my leg.

I looked and saw that it was
a sea lion.

Soon another came
install yourself on the other side.

And in the end,
We were three sea lions.

They didn't see me as a predator,
as a threat.

It was my first report
about nature,

the first time
that I photographed other animals.

For 8 years,
I took my time to look,

until you understand
the most important:

I am nature, as much as
a turtle, a tree,

or a stone.

The incredible thing is how he looks
for us.

Well, yeah...

It has depth in its look.

He came close,
I was taking the photo...

He put his finger in his mouth

and saw himself
for the first time.

By lens flare.

He took his finger out and put it in,

until I was sure it was
himself that he was seeing.

He was recognizing
the image itself.

I felt completely identified
with him.

It's a family just like ours.

Grandparents, parents and grandchildren.

And they respect each other.

When you go to them,
you need to be...

polite, introduce yourself,
in a certain way.

Show respect
through their territory.

And from then on, you are accepted.

I managed to become friends
also of a whale.

They were whales in...

Argentina.

As an adult, it measures 35 meters
and it weighs about 40 tons.

She approached,
she came to the boat.

I could touch her, you know.

And it's incredible...
the sensitivity of her skin.

When I caressed her,

saw the tail 35m away,
she was shaking.

A phenomenal sensitivity.

The vessel was about 7 meters long.

She knew that if she forced
she would capsize our boat.

But never once did she touch
on the boat, not once.

When we moved away a little
she beat her tail.

She seems from another world,
It's unbelievable.

I'll see if I have it here
another photo of the Nenets.

See, everything a nenet has
is here.

It's his house.

This report with the Nenet people
I prepared for a long time.

There were 18 people
with around 6 thousand reindeer

who lived
in permanent migration.

Here it must be
around 7:00 pm.

Around 8:00 p.m.,
they light the fire

and do
the only hot meal of the day.

After eating,
they talk a little, they discuss.

And the fire is put out.

With a fire burning inside,
the temperature is 15 to 20°C.

It's very pleasant.

Two hours later, it goes to -30°C.

They are the real ones
Siberian cowboys.

Always carry the ropes
around the neck,

made with reindeer hair.

Wear boots
of silver fox fur.

They sleep with boots on.
A boot lasts a lifetime.

The Ob is a special river.

It is a huge river in Siberia.

There he measures
about 47 km wide.

Above the Ob, you enter
in the Arctic Circle.

There is no more horizon line,
there is nothing.

You find yourself on a board,
white, the size of the universe.

Genesis made Sebastian
travel the world again,

for almost a decade.

He wanted to show us
nature,

animals, places and people,

who remained
as at the beginning of time.

A much more optimistic view
from the same planet

that Sebastião had seen before,
injured and destroyed.

'Genesis' would end up being
his masterpiece.

A love letter to the planet.

There were representations of the Zo'�

in Jesuit scriptures,
from the 16th century.

They came to the Amazon
and reported about a people

that used a kind of tube
on the lower lip.

Such Indians,
were never seen again.

Everyone thought
which was a fable,

an invention of the Jesuits.

That was until the end of the 80s,

when they were finally
contacted.

STATE OF PAR�, BRAZIL
Tribo Zo'�, 2009

These Indians live in paradise.

It's the only place I've seen in my life

where women have
3, 4 or 5 husbands.

And the husbands...
There are the same number of women.

A woman has
a hunter husband,

a fisherman husband,

a husband who works
a little on the plantation,

a husband close to home
to help with the rest...

Women have enormous power.

They have a domain
on part of men

which is quite big.

Something I always thought
interesting,

in all these people,

is that people have

a complete conscience
of the image itself.

When I was going to take a photo,

and that the person knew

that I would represent her
in image,

She was interested at first,
and then, no more,

because it wasn't her world.

But they were very interested
by my knife.

My friend Yp� made me swear
that I would give him my knife.

But the person responsible for FUNAI

made me promise

that I wouldn't give
no object to the Indians

to protect a little
their purity.

Yp� offered me a deal.

"The day you leave,

you will throw the knife
through the plane window. "

"I will follow the path of the plane

and I will find the knife. "

The man, whose photographs
they told us

several stories
of life on our planet,

share with us
a great project and a dream:

The destruction of nature
can be reversed.

Thousands of water sources
they started watering again

the "Instituto Terra".

2.5 million trees
have already been planted.

The fauna returned,
including jaguars.

The area is no longer
owned by the Salgado family,

It is a national park
and belongs to everyone.

It is a model of how
devastated lands wherever you are,

can become forests again.

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