Customer Reviews

The Devil's Miner

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4 star:		(1)
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This story, the story of child laborers in the "3rd world" is a harrowing account of poverty and misery. But it is also a story about hope, the hope that these children, and the some 800 other children who work the same mines, can get out of the life and acheive something more than the certain death that awaits all of such miners. What a great movie, you actually start to feel clausterphobic when the camera takes you to the deepest depths of the mines with these children. You feel your throat start to close up when you watch these workers walk through the dust without masks.

This movie explains why someone like Evo Morales has come to power in Bolivia, and anyone who derieds such a humble man as Morales needs to watch this DVD.

Basilio and Bernandino Vargas are two Bolivian kids who, because of the death of their father, have to work as child laborers in the Cerro Rico silver mines. Basilio works long shifts for $2.50 a day. But then transfers to a more dangerous mine where he is able to make $4.00 a day. Somehow he manages to also attend to school, though he has to spend a substantial amount of his salary just to pay for his school uniform.

One of the great things about this doc is that the film makers have a sincere humanitarian purpose. They not only want to educate viewers about the horrors of child labor. But actually do something tangiable to better the lives of these kids.

Included in the bonus features is a short film which shows how Basilio and Bernardino are doing one year after filming. Apparently an aide agency called Kindernothilfe has enabled the boys to leave the mines, move their family into a apartment in Potosi and continue their educations so they will have better opportunities in life.

I wish these great youngsters, and others like them, all the best. They deserve it!

Seldom does a documentary capture both my mind and heart, yet 'The Devil's Miner' does just that. This is more than an entrance into hell on earth; it is the story of a child captured by the beast of poverty and despair.

Because of my humanitarian work I have been inside the La Cumbre silver mine, the mountain that eats men. This excellent documentary captures the darkness and dome of those that scrape out a meager living, while at the same time giving the viewer hope for those trapped. There is a light at the end of the shaft, a very small distant light, but light nonetheless.

This is a must view for all who will be going to Bolivia and especially for those who will visit this mine in Potosi. Excellent. Highly Recommended.

This movie is eye-opening. It shows how life in poor countries is very different in so many ways from that in the affluent USA.

What's it like to work in silver mines when you are still a child? This Spanish-language movie, with English subtitles, tells it all. The father had died years ago, and the mother must take care of younger children. So, as is true in other situations where the oldest child must grow up fast and assume many of the responsibilities of the missing parent, the 14 year-old boy must work to support the family. So does his 12 year-old brother. When the 14 year-old moves on to the larger, more profitable mine (in the "mountain that eats people"), the only consolation is the fact that the foreman pledges to the mother that he will watch out for the boy. Mining is arduous and dangerous. The miners of all ages must chew on coca leaves (the precursor to cocaine) in order to combat fatigue.

Most cases of child labor involve situations where generations of people are trapped in poverty. This situation is potentially different. The larger mine has pneumatic drills, suggesting that technological improvements in Bolivian mining will eventually make child labor unprofitable and therefore obsolete. The 12 and 14 year-old boys go to school in hopes that they can get safer and better-paying jobs when they are older. They wear uniforms that their mother can barely afford. As a professional educator, I am struck by the respect for education and its contrast with the often superficial attitudes of American parents and children towards the schooling process.

Both children and adults in this area believe that, whereas God rules the world above ground, the Tio (Satan) rules the underworld. In order to avoid tragedies and to be granted access to good veins of silver, the miners must pay homage to the devil by praying to him, lighting candles to him, and offering him gifts of tobacco, alcohol, etc. The boys explain the origins of this devil-worship: When Spanish colonists forced Indians to work in the mines, the latter sometimes rebelled. So, to instill fear, the colonists told the Indians that if they balked at working, the devil would punish them. A local priest explains how he tries to combat this old superstition.

Two Americans, Kief Davidson and Richard Ladkani, went to Bolivia to film this documentary. I saw this film at its New York City premiere a few years ago, in a theater in Greenwich Village, and Mr. Davidson was in the audience. He answered a number of questions after the film was over. While some efforts are being made to address the horrific situation of pre-teenagers working under dangerous health conditions in the Bolivian silver mines, nowhere near enough funding is available to prevent this enormously saddening practice from continuing.

The sight of miners--boys and men alike--walking maskless in and through clouds of mineral dust is truly horrifying. Then when you realize that some of these boys are as young as 12 years old, it's even worse. This scenario, when juxtaposed with miners praying to various statues of the devil--most festooned with flowers, food, and other items of thanks--is almost too bizarre to be believed, especially given the devout Catholicism of the population. But in the mines of Bolivia, the devil is, for better or worse, the chief deity--it is he who holds sway over the daily lives of the miners who, if they live past the age of 40, are considered lucky indeed.

The main character in the film is a 14-year old boy who with his 12-year old brother works in these mines to put food on the table for his broken family (the father is not in the household). He goes to school with his brother and hopes for a better future, but it's relatively clear, seeing the film, that this is really a dim kind of hope.

The Devil's Miner brings to light one of the most tragic plights of people living in poverty in various parts of the world. It's interesting to compare this with a feature film, Blind Shaft, set in China, about two miners who perpetrate a murderous scam to make money additional to their work.

This is a superior film, very highly recommended.

Enter a mountain turned into Swiss cheese by four centuries of hodge-podge mining, where today there still are thousands of men and boys --intelligent, humane, dignified people--slowly destroying themselves in order to buy food and shelter. In Bolivia, overlooking the highest city in the world, Potosi, is the mountain Cerro Rico, nicknamed "the mountain that eats men alive".

Ancient, rotted timber sets. Children hand-drilling with steel and a hammer. Squeezing through crude passages to get to the next level. Lighting fuses by hand and running for the one and only exit. Worn-out, barely functional machinery. Dry pneumatic drills creating clouds of pulverized rock to cut your lungs to pieces, clog them, and kill you. No communication equipment, no meaningful safety equipment or procedures, no regulation, no inspections, nothing. Leave a daily offering at the devil's altar (there's one in each of the hundreds of mines in the mountain), go 4000 feet in and 1600 feet down, and hope you get out alive at the end of your 10 to 24 hour shift. Death by age 35-40.

From a historical perspective, the mines in Potosi highlight the brutality of Spain's legacy in the New World. Much of Renaissance Europe's silver came from this one mountain. Those beautiful altar pieces in cathedrals and the ornate silver collections of kings and merchants are dripping with blood. It is fascinating that such beauty comes from such sadness.

Geologists think there's still a lot of wealth in the mountain. That, plus desperation, means people will continue to try to find the silver and other metals hidden in Potosi. It's a pity the various mine co-ops don't join together and look at the feasibility of getting the financing to just start at the top and slowly level the mountain. Some people don't like "mountain-top mining", but it sure would beat the horrible world of Potosi's deep mines.

Great documentary. I just wish they had included more mine footage, maybe as an extra on the DVD.

This film is as much as a documentary as it is a call for action.
American audiences will be taken aback and awed by the story of Bolivia's Vargas family. If your children do not appreciate the lifestyle they enjoy, (and whose do?) "The Devil's Miner" will no doubt inspire some gratitude in them at least until the Ritalin wears off.
This is a brilliant film that points out the consequence of disparities between first and third-world nations. Quite simply, it's always the children that suffer.
Imagine a 14 year-old that genuinely wants to go to school, despite the ridicule by other students who don't have the burden of also being the head of a household. What adds to the frustration of watching the film is how scant the wages of Bolivia compare to those of even modestly industrialized nations.
All nations will undoubtedly struggle through the same process of modernization that Americans did some 150 plus years ago and Bolivia endures today. It is odd to see that the same child labor and working conditions that we outlawed so long ago are still alive and well in places like Bolivia. To see children working in mines and with limited if any safety provisions is as primitive as a modern incarnation of the slave trade.
"The Devil's Miner" is inspiring in its mission of advocacy and the realization that for the cost of a typical video game system, a child or two in Bolivia could be kept out of the mines and go to school perhaps to eventually lead Bolivia out of its forlorn economic situation.

I have two teenagers, and I frequently rent documentary videos for us to watch, so they can "travel around the world," and see how other children live. We have watched many great documentaries, but none touched us as much as "The Devil's Miner."

The story is compelling and had us spell-bound. Basilio was a most mature and well-spoken boy, and the perfect choice to narrate the story of what it is like to be a child miner in Bolivia. The whole family was immensely likeable, and we were touched by the obvious love they had for each other.

This story of child miners is, as to be expected, tragic and heart-rending, and yet the unquenchable spirit of humankind is well displayed. The filming and editing was superb; we could imagine that we were walking beside Basilio on the barren, gray slopes of the mountain, or breathing the dust inside the mine alongside him.

We enjoyed this documentary so much that I am buying one for us to add to our home collection. I highly recommend it to anyone.

The Devil's Miner This is a great DVD that I recommend to all those people that love children and want to do something good for them. It is a real story and every kid in America should see it. I had given this DVD to 2 recent college graduates and both loved this DVD. It doesn't matter what part of the world you live, children are children everywhere and should be respected.

Love this DVD. Please see it!!

Mrs. Montes

This movie was so insightful. I used it as an optional project in my Spanish class and the students that chose to watch it really learned a lot.