i liked it a lot, although it's quite amateur, the way it's done and the subject is very interesting. it is about the tourists who visit the mines in potosi. every travel guidebook would mention it as an "amazing experience" or something like that, and the documentary starts to interview some tourists and kind of portraits them as a bit stupid. maybe they were not lucky finding the people to speak about why they chose to go to the mines or how they felt there. from what i understood, the miners don't have a good idea of the tourists either, and don't understand why they are the attraction.
the thing is that these miners work in such horrible conditions that this is almost exotic. they work the same way as they did centuries ago.
they interview the town mayor who wants to dress these miners as they did in the colonial times, just for the tourists.
and they interview an ex-miner who now works at a company who organizes these tours through the mines. he feels sorry that tourism has been basically destroying the traditional culture. where women used to plant potatoes now they are knitting souvenirs...and he is quite sure that there'll be mines adapted for the tourists, just for them to see.
the last scene shows some tourists all happy throwing dinamite and wanting to drink beer after being there. the miners say that the tourists are not good for these jobs because they only enjoy life.
i don't know. i could easily be one of those tourists i think. as a tourist, people want to experience as much as possible, but after two long experiences abroad, i tend to value more and more the long stays and to feel more of an intruder in the short ones.
my brother travelled through south america recently and he loved it, but this is true, some entire villages live of selling souvenirs. but who's to blame really?