Anyox review – ghostly afterlife of a devastated mining town in ecological disaster
Jessica Johnson and Ryan Ermacora’s documentary connects the grim toil of a place that once boomed – for its owners – with its toxic legacy
Back in the early 20th century, Anyox was a booming mining town in British Columbia, Canada. It is now a deserted wasteland; only two residents remain, their daily routine revolving around cleaning up mountains of black slag or sorting through rusty machine parts left behind in abandoned factories. Hypnotic in its eerie solemnity, Jessica Johnson and Ryan Ermacora’s documentary connects these images of present-day ruins with Anyox’s sordid past, in which labour exploitation was inflicted in the name of commerce.
Digging through official reports, personal diaries and newspaper articles, the film conjures the psychological impact as well as the physical toil endured by the miners, half of whom were immigrants from eastern Europe. Their deplorable working conditions were already apparent in archive newsreels, which show the toxic smog that led to cancerous diseases as well as the destruction of the region’s vegetation. Anyox was a company-owned mining town, so the corporation also had a full monopoly over grocery items and rent. Testimonials from a Croatian miner, read by a voice actor, detail the workers’ efforts to fight against the employers, including their own newspaper and pamphlets to educate other employees on their rights. Such publications, however, were also suppressed by the mining bosses.
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