Anyox
42s
A former mining town in remote northwest British Columbia, Anyox is now marked by mountainous slag piles accumulated as a byproduct of the early 20th century copper smelting process. Anyox tracks the daily work of the town’s two sole residents, who organize and salvage value out of this seemingly endless mass of industrial waste. Concurrently, the film unfolds a complex labour history and reveals the vestiges of immense environmental degradation produced by the company town model. Anyox explores a history of labour press dissemination, activism and the severe reaction from industry and government. Interlacing past and present, Anyox combines large format cinematography of the contemporary landscape with a study of the archival record, considering the aesthetics it carries, as well as how it reveals and obscures narratives.