North American Premiere
In the northwest reaches of British Columbia, Anyox sits all-but-abandoned. Once a thriving company town constructed around a copper mine, it now boasts only two year-round residents who navigate ominous mountains of slag as they salvage industrial waste. Having transported us into this exploited environ on the back of a quad bike, directors Ryan Ermacora and Jessica Johnson next plunge us into the archival records charting the early 20th century rise and Great Depression-era fall of Anyox. Through an arresting exploration of newspaper articles, labour publications, land surveys, and industrial films, they uncover a history of oppression every bit as grim as the desecrated landscape that resource extraction has left in its wake.
While indebted to early cinema’s pace, compositions, and structure, Anyox is undeniably contemporary in terms of its urgency and concerns. Abetted by Jeremy Cox’s striking 35 and 65mm cinematography, Ermacora and Johnson offer an immaculately crafted portrait of the damage wrought by the callousness of colonial ambition.
Q&A Sept 30 & Oct 3
Presented by
Media Partner
Canada
2022
In English and Croatian with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Schindler's List
One of the most acclaimed films of the 90s, Steven Spielberg's adaptation of Thomas Keneally's Schindler's Ark is the story of a German industrialist whose conscience is stirred to save his Jewish workers from the camps.
Free event.
Dazed and Confused
The last day of high school in May, 1976: seniors debate party politics while next term's freshmen run the gauntlet of brutal initiation rites, barely comforted by the knowledge that they'll wield the stick one day.
Whispers in the Woods
A luxuriant, healing immersion in nature with ravishing wildlife photography, this is the cinematic equivalent of "forest bathing," a trip deep into the Vosges, France, with photographer Vincent Munier (The Velvet Queen), his father and his son.
Three Colours: Blue
The first of Kieslowski's acclaimed Three Colours Trilogy, inspired by the French Revolutionary ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity and the French flag, the Tricolour. Blue stars Juliette Binoche as a young woman grieving her husband and child.
Credits
Executive Producer
Tyler Hagan
Producer
Ryan Ermacora, Jessica Johnson, Alysha Seriani
Cinematography
Jeremy Cox
Original Music
Lea Bertucci
Directors
Jessica Johnson and Ryan Ermacora
Jessica Johnson and Ryan Ermacora are award-winning filmmakers based in Vancouver, BC. Their work investigates how humans have engraved their histories into natural spaces and is informed by an interest in avant-garde depictions of landscape and labour. Their style is defined by a self-reflexive and structural approach to cinema. Their work has screened at festivals such as Cinéma du Réel, Edinburgh International Film Festival, Festival du Nouveau Cinéma, Open City Documentary Festival, DOXA Documentary Film Festival, and VIFF.