Heavy breathing on death mountain
Extreme exhaustion Profound fatigue Maximum altitude .
Heavy breathing on the mountain of death
Grover / Marco Guillermo / Story about a group of students from Austria, who as their final master’s project filmed a film about a mine in Bolivia. Student film about the Bolivian silver mine – Heavy breathing on the mountain of death
Work in the silver mines of Cerro Rico in Bolivia is extremely dangerous. Six students filmed the conditions in which workers extract rare metals from the earth under extreme suffering.
Author : Julio Cesar Morales Zambrana
Heavy breathing
However, Armin Thalhammer says the experience was oppressive and terrifying. Spend hours in a narrow underground passage, only 80 centimeters high and one meter wide. Dust, stench, heat. «When I saw it for the first time, I was shocked and at the same time fascinated,» says the 25-year-old film student at the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences.
The first time was during a trip with artists from Mexico, which Armin Thalhammer made in 2013 through South America. In Potosí, Bolivia, at 4100 meters above sea level, he met the Cruz family, all miners who work in the tunnels of Cerro Rico. «Even today, around 15,000 workers, including children, are still digging into the mountain with hammers and chisels to find silver, tin, lead, copper or zinc,» says the student from Salzburg. «Despite the toxic gases and dust, most miners do not wear gas masks or safety clothing.»
DEADLY SEARCH FOR SILVER
The work is extremely dangerous: between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries alone, several million people died in the search for silver deposits, and to this day, on average, one person dies every day due to a work accident or poisoning. The Cruz family has also lost a member: One of the sons died at age 14 due to carbon monoxide poisoning at the mine. However, the others continue to work underground, as they have no other option to survive: the father, the three adult children and the son-in-law.
Photo gallery: 15 images
Film project in Bolivia: Students in the deadly silver mine
«It must show in what conditions some people live in the world,» Thalhammer thought, and together with five fellow students he developed the idea of a student documentary project. «The organizational preparation took a semester,» says Katharina Rettenbacher, who, as a producer, took care of the filming permits, visas and financing. Once the paperwork was completed, the six students took a Spanish course, traveled to Bolivia for six and a half weeks, and entered the mine. «We really immersed ourselves in the everyday life of the Cruz family,» says Julian Hartmuth, the project’s cameraman.
Day-to-day means up to 18 hours straight in the darkness of the mine. Eating underground is prohibited, so miners chew coca leaves to combat fatigue and hunger. «The air was so bad that sometimes I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to breathe anymore,» Julian says. Despite this, film students returned to the tunnels every day, crawling through the narrow passages, filming and photographing. As a result, they achieved stunning portraits of the miners.
IN SEARCH OF FINANCING
«This project is incredibly important to all of us,» says Armin. «We wanted to finish it at all costs and complete the movie.» Each of the six young filmmakers has invested several thousand euros out of their own pocket. Now they are looking for support through crowdfunding and their website to be able to finish their ambitious documentary project. «Our university and film funding have already given us great support, but we still have a lot planned for the film,» says producer Katharina.
The students want «moviegoers to experience the film as intensely as possible,» Armin explains. For this reason, they have decided not to include a voice-over narration, but to rely completely on the sounds and acoustic atmosphere they recorded in the mine. To truly convey this terrifying situation, special speaker systems will be installed during the screenings. The students describe their work as an «experimental documentary» and hope to capture the interest not only of innovative cinemas, but also of film festivals in the coming year.
Julio César Morales and his Commitment to the Future of Children
The ‘New Dawn for Children’ Foundation and its Struggle for the Future of Cerro Rico
The «New Dawn for Children» Foundation (FUNAM) was founded by Julio César Morales Zambrana, a former miner committed to improving the living conditions of the most vulnerable in Bolivia. With Bolivian state license No. 379/2017, FUNAM works to provide support not only to children living and working in Cerro Rico, but also to those in rural and rural communities, where needs are equally urgent.
By means of small
Through concrete and sustainable actions, the FUNAM Foundation works to improve the quality of life of the most vulnerable communities, from the children of Cerro Rico to the rural families of southwest Potosí.
The Foundation's effort
The effort of the foundation seeks that, beyond poverty and difficulties, there is a ray of light that illuminates the hopes of those who need it most.