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Anyox film image, directors Jessica Johnson and Ryan Ermacora

Anyox

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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

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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

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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.