The filmmakers are better at fashioning haunting images than offering hard-nosed analysis, yet they never sentimentalize their young protagonists' plight.

| Sep 29, 2017

This documentary which exposes the twin evils of child labor and silver mining, is a most powerful expose' of an ongoing, mass-scale human tragedy.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jun 16, 2007

The flawless progress of this documentary lies in the filmmakers' unwavering fealty to their subjects.

| Mar 1, 2007

A horror movie? Nope -- documentary. Though there is, I think, a good horror movie to be made here.

| Oct 25, 2006

The film has a tendency to repeat itself, even within its short running time of 82 minutes, but is still able to express a sincere sorrow.

| Original Score: 6/10 | Jul 6, 2006

A mesmerizing documentary both exotic and sad.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | May 19, 2006

It's a simple film with a direct message, but the glimpses of the surrounding social culture that has adapted to the horrors give (it) its identity.

| Original Score: B | May 18, 2006

It's a testament to the filmmakers' subtle storytelling skill that we come to see these boys as heroes as well as victims.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | May 11, 2006

This is social documentary at its best.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Apr 28, 2006

A role-model of a boy with the great skill to articulate his impressive determination and plan for self-improvement.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 28, 2006

... visually beautiful, unforced essay on legacies of colonialism.

Full Review | Apr 27, 2006

While political and social context is kept to a minimum, the darkly poetic images they capture speak volumes about what the miners go through.

Full Review | Mar 28, 2006

At times it feels as if not cameras but the audience has been transported to the high mountains of Potosi, Bolivia -- and not so much physically but somehow spiritually.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Mar 25, 2006

This beautiful, terrible story is not easily forgotten.

| Original Score: A | Mar 22, 2006

Basilio narrates his tale with such wit and wisdom that one comes away from the film wondering how much youthful potential is slowly being choked to death deep within the bowels of the earth.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 17, 2006

Guaranteed to leave you outraged at the way children -- and, for that matter, adults -- are exploited by mining companies.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 17, 2006

Directors Kief Davidson and Richard Ladkani go underground themselves to expose a form of near-slavery instituted by the Spanish conquistadors more than four centuries ago.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Mar 16, 2006

Kief Davidson and Richard Ladkani's documentary The Devil's Miner is so polished that it might pass for a scripted narrative feature, but that's not a bad thing.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Mar 15, 2006

A sobering day trip, more for its hints of a forgotten history of culture collision than its sensible but rote socioeconomic sympathies.

| Mar 14, 2006

A study in courage and harrowing portrait of a 14-year-old boy who works in a Bolivian silver mine, The Devil's Miner is an unforgettable journey through hell under the earth, where Satan is worshipped as king.

| Mar 10, 2006