Press
Araya
November 13-19, Daily at 7 and 9pm
(Margot Benacerraf, Venezuela / France, 1959, 35mm, 82 min)
In 2006, a team of world-renowned film archivists and historians painstakingly restored the Venezuelan masterpiece Araya to its original, complete version—a version that had not been seen since its initial 1959 release. This remarkably beautiful documentary about life on the arid peninsula of Araya has won unanimous critical acclaim upon each of its rare screenings over the past five decades. Not until now, however, have audiences had the chance to experience the original version that prompted Jean Renoir to urge Benacerraf: “Above all…don’t cut a single image!” Lyrically capturing the rhythms of a culture over the course of 24 hours, Araya is canonical both as Venezuelan and as feminist Latina cinema.
“The film, from the first images, submerges the viewer into a universe of rare beauty.” —From the original 1959 press notes
