The Fabulous Gold Harvesting Machine review – scavenger’s story reveals a rich seam to mine

Alfredo Pourailly De La Plaza’s absorbing documentary about an ageing Chilean gold panner is meticulously detailed and doubles as its own act of visual prospecting Out on the remote archipelago of Tierra del Fuego in Chile, Toto Gesell holds on to a profession that hails from bygone times: gold prospecting. Every day, come rain or shine, he puts on his rubber boots and heads to a local creek, where he searches for specks of gold the old-fashioned way: with a pan, a shovel and a homemade sluic...

By Phuong Le