Film shows Chilean miners alive and well

The men appear arm-in-arm in the film, singing the national anthem and yelling "long live Chile, and long live the miners!"

Only about five minutes of what is reportedly a 45-minute video was released on Thursday evening by Television Nacional de Chile via the Chilean government.

The men made the video with a small camera sent down to them through an 8cm-wide emergency shaft drilled to their emergency shelter deep in the San Jose mine.

The grainy, night-vision images show the miners proudly displaying the way they have organised the shelter where they took refuge after a landslide trapped them on August 5.

They also showed off areas outside the shelter where they can walk around.

As the camera shows a table with dominoes laid out, one man says: "We meet here every day. We plan, we have assemblies so that all the decisions we make are based on the thoughts of all 33."

The camera was sent down through a bore-hole used for communications. Another small hole that snakes down to the men's shelter is used for lowering food and a third provides ventilation.

At one point the footage shows a close-up of a thermometer reading 29.5 degrees Celsius.

On Thursday families filed the first of many expected lawsuits against the private company that operates the mine, San Esteban and the government.

A judge has ordered the retention of $1.8 million (£1.17m) of company money in anticipation of the suits.

Despite advances in technology and increased emphasis on safety - at least publicly - mining remains a dangerous profession in Chile.

Since 2000, about 34 people have died every year on average in mining accidents in Chile, with a high of 43 in 2008, according to a review of data from state regulatory agency Sernageomin.

Senator Baldo Prokurica, who is on the Senate mining committee, says he has been pushing Congress for years to increase the number of Sernageomin inspectors.

It currently has only 18 in a country that has several hundred mines.

Chilean President Sebastian Pinera has fired top regulators and created a commission to investigate the accident and the agency.

Since the collapse, the agency has shut down at least 18 small mines for safety violations, a sign that lax safety measures are an open secret at many privately-owned mines.