DEVIL'S MINER gets 3 USA screenings @ the 2005 Tribeca Film Festival

Fri, Apr 22 / 4:00pm
Regal Battery Park 6
$10.00

Sat, Apr 23 / 4:15pm
Regal Battery Park 8
$10.00

Thu, Apr 28 / 8:00pm
Regal Battery Park 4
$10.00

In Potosi, Bolivia there is a nearly depleted series of silver mines that have been excavated for hundreds of years, ever since the first Spanish Armada invaded the region in the 16th century. Through the years over 8 million miners have perished inside the mines and now only 9,000 or so remain to search the deserted caverns for silver. Their existence in the mines has been stigmatized by the locals who call them the 'scavengers' of the mountain.

Basilio Vargas has been without a father since age 2 and has now come-of-age as the family provider. He has been mining a very poor section of the mountain for several years using his younger brother as a helper. When school starts his needs increase so he moves on to a larger mining camp and is forced to leave his brother behind. The old miners teach him the ropes as they drill hundreds of feet below the surface of the mountain.

They also expand his knowledge of the mountain deity 'Teo' that all of miners worship for fear of the devil's wrath underground. Interestingly, when they are outside the mines they all attend the normal Catholic masses but for some reason their superstition prevents them from believing God will protect them under the ground.

The filmmakers do an excellent job of taking the viewer inside the mining tunnels highlighting both the hazards of premature lung ailments from inhaling dust to cave-in's and getting caught by an unexploded charges of dynamite.

Luckily, no one was injured during the making of the film but any parent who has a spoiled teenager could get a lot of mileage out of the lessons this film teaches. Age 14 is hardly the time to begin hard labor, but young Basilio goes about his work in a serious manner earning the pride of his family (and possibly yours).