Araya (film)

Araya is a 1959 Venezuelan-French documentary film directed by Margot Benacerraf and co-written by Benacerraf and Pierre Seghers. It depicts the lives of laborers who extract salt from the sea off the Araya peninsula in Venezuela. Their method for extracting salt, virtually unchanged for centuries, depends on grueling physical labor, but provides a dependable, if meager, living for the men and their families. The film ends with a recently built plant for mechanized salt extraction that could eliminate the community's traditional source of income.

The film was entered into the 1959 Cannes Film Festival, where it shared the Cannes International Critics Prize with Alain Resnais's Hiroshima mon amour.

In 2009, Milestone Films released Araya in North American theaters for the first time as well as rereleasing it internationally. Milestone also distributes a restored DVD version of the film.

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Araya

Araya may refer to:

Places

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Araya (name)

Araya, originally Araia, is a Basque surname, from the town Araia in Aspárrena, province of Alava, Basque Country. People with the surname Araya or Araia include:

Araya is a Tigray-Tigrinya given name/lineage name. People with this name include:

Araya, Venezuela

Araya is a town located on Venezuela's Caribbean coast, on the easternmost extremity of the Araya Peninsula.

Araya Fortress

The Araya Fortress is a beige-brown stone masonry fortification. The fortification was built in order to defend Araya and the Araya Peninsula against Caribbean pirates. The Spanish Empire only focused on the pearls that could be found off the coast. Because this area had the largest salt plains in the country, the Dutch and the English started extracting the salt, an important product at that time.

When the pearl harvesting came to an end, the Spanish used the fort to defend the salt plains against the English and the Dutch. The fort was abandoned after a hurricane destroyed the area and the salt reserves were lost.

External links

Media related to Araya (Venezuela) at Wikimedia Commons

Coordinates: 10°34′N 64°15′W / 10.567°N 64.250°W / 10.567; -64.250