Skip to main content
Anyox film image, directors Jessica Johnson and Ryan Ermacora

Anyox

This event has passed

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

Global BC Logo

Directors
Credits
Country of Origin

Canada

Year

2022

Language

In English and Croatian with English subtitles

Film Contact
18+
87 min
Catalyst Program Alumni Documentary Human Rights & Social Justice Women Directors

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre

Frankenstein

Dir. Guillermo del Toro
149 min

Frankenstein and Guillermo del Toro might have been made for each other. The movie does not disappoint, a ripping yarn of grand adventure, spectacle, hubris, passion and XXL body parts, a tale of the fantastic that rings the imagination. Screening in 35mm.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Checkpoint Zoo

Dir. Joshua Zeman
107 min

The amazing true story of the rescue of thousands of animals trapped on the frontline at an Ecopark when Russia invades Ukraine in 2022.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Ballad of a Small Player

Dir. Edward Berger
105 min

Colin Farrell stars in this noir film about a gambler running out of luck in Macau, from the director of Conclave and All Quiet on the Western Front. Tilda Swinton, Fala Chen and Deannie Yip costar.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Predators

Dir. David Osit
96 min

"Punk'd for pedophiles." That's what Jimmy Kimmel called Chris Hansen's true crime/reality TV show, To Catch a Predator (2004-07). Two decades on, David Osit examines why the show made such an impact, for good or ill, and sits down with Hansen himself.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

You Are Not My Mother

Dir. Kate Dolan
93 min

One of the best horror films of recent years, from anywhere, Kate Dolan's film finds a chilling angle on a mother-daughter relationship.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Oddity

Dir. Damian McCarthy
98 min

The aptly-titled Oddity is a fiendish and disturbing horror movie about a blind seer, her murdered twin, and the psychiatrist widower's new girlfriend...

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Credits

Executive Producer

Tyler Hagan

Producer

Ryan Ermacora, Jessica Johnson, Alysha Seriani

Cinematography

Jeremy Cox

Original Music

Lea Bertucci

Directors

Ryan Ermacora & Jessica Johnson headshot, Anyox co-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.