2014 ‘El color que cayó del cielo’ Directed by Sergio Wolf
Campo Del Cielo, in Argentina, experienced a meteor shower thousands of years ago. Since then all kinds of people have come to the area in search of a part of the booty. Among them, the largest meteorite collector in the world, and at the same time smuggler, Robert Haag. A film that speaks of plunder and human folly.
Brazil
Argentina
Argentina
Brazil
My goodness there are a bunch of The Color Out of Space movies, including an upcoming one about a meteor starring Nicolas Cage based on a short story by H.P. Lovecraft penned in 1927.
This 2014 Argentinian documentary about a meteor shower that fell to earth thousands of years ago appears to have purloined Lovecraft’s title, and slyly hid the theft by translating it into Spanish.
Writer / Director Sergio Wolf seems to have bitten off a bit more than he could chew for this, his sophomore effort. Wolf seems lost toggling between the mysticism and religious significance of the meteors, the modern day scientist studying them, a slick-willy ‘meteor dealer’ who tries to spirit them out of the country,…
THE COLOR OUT OF SPACE is a compelling documentary that uses the history of a 60+ ton meteorite as the focal point for a larger meditation on colonialism and exploitation. The film starts with indigenous oral history about the meteorite (and the fragments that fell around it, collectively known as 'Campo del Cielo') that clearly communicates its spiritual significance to the Maqoit people in northwest Argentina. Campo del Cielo was a gathering place for indigenous peoples and played a role in some of their traditional narratives, including one about fire falling from the sky. The Spanish invaders reference it in their documents - they viewed the mostly-buried rock as evidence of a massive iron deposit, unwilling to accept the indigenous…
A fascinating, if somewhat unfocused, look at the world of meteorite hunting and some of its characters, each similarly obsessed, some with purer motivations than others. ‘Meteor Man’ Robert Haag is quite the character, almost Billy Mitchell-esque in his dogged pursuit of these valuable space rocks by any means necessary. Poses interesting questions about ownership and ethics, and the impact on local lore and law. Aninteresting watch.
With a Nicolas Cage film of the same title opening at TIFF next month I thought it might be a good idea to watch this documentary first.
The doc is about a particularly large meteorite that fell in Argentina a while back. I can only say a while back because it wasn't clear whether it was thousands of years or hundreds or decades ago.
The filmmaker made an interesting choice in starting the film with the perspective of the indigenous people who saw it fall at the time. Well, it isn't really from their perspective, we learn, because nothing was documented and the oral history is a bit sketchy. In fact, all we really get is an interview with an…
yo estaba toda feliz porque me iba a ver una película de ciencia ficción argentina y resulta que era documental sobre meteoritos
pero está bien porque me gustan los meteoritos
de hecho es sobre todo lo que se puede decir respecto a unos meteoritos en Argentina
tal vez esa ansia de abordar todos los aspectos hace que algunas partes resulten inconexas, pero igual es divertido
Este interesantísimo y muy entretenido documental de Wolf es casi un wéstern. Tiene como protagonista a un científico entrañable y como villano a un contrabandista insoportable. El botín es un meteorito que alguna vez cayó en el Chaco, los personajes secundarios son deliciosos y el duelo se da a la distancia y por medio de una esgrima visual de testimonios que se entrelazan con especial destreza.
An hour or so after seeing its end credits roll, I'm still partway stumped by El color que cayó del cielo. Is its almost parodically impressionistic and rambling storytelling style a deliberate, winking put-on by the filmmakers? A knowing bit of sleight-of-hand designed to make the audience work to glean information from what we see on screen, making us highly susceptible to the more obvious points Sergio Wolf and his collaborators make as the film reaches its improbable climax? Or is the scattered structure, the gorgeous, languid establishing shots (so at odds with most of the relatively prosaic archive and interview footage), and the intermittent, inconsistent voice-over narration simply the result of a relatively inexperienced director not quite able to…
Meteors that landed in Campo Del Ciego in Argentina carry with them ancient tales told by the ingenious people. Scientists, businessmen and treasure hunters where drawn to the area in the decades that follow. Here we meet William Cassidy who re-found the massive meteor told of in the legends, but also Robert Haag who came to the area with a scheme to buy and sell the meteor.
Low key, but really interesting story of the legend, the excavation, the “heist” and how it saw new laws instituted to protect cultural heritage.
