Moving Mountains

A tableau film about blowing up mountains to extract pigment to create the colour white, in both a concrete and figurative sense.

Sokndal is the area in Norway where most mining takes place. It is here that ilmenite, the mineral used in a chemical process to make white pigment, is mined and used in everything from paint and paper to toothpaste, food and medicine. With a completely still camera and an artistic sensuality akin to Peter Nestler and slow cinema, ‘Moving Mountains’ shows the extraction of the minerals and traces both the past and present mining landscape of the Norwegian municipality. It is a film about blowing up mountains in order to export the product of whiteness to the rest of the world. A quiet, low-key film in which the landscape is allowed to play the leading role, while man takes on lesser roles.