Mined Soil

Directed by Filipa César

The film-essay Mined Soil revisits the work of the Guinean agronomist Amílcar Cabral, who studied soil erosion in the Alentejo region of Portugal through the lens of his political engagement as a leader of the African Liberation Movement of the 1950s. This line of thought intertwines with documentation of an experimental gold mining site, now operated by a Canadian company located in the same Portuguese region once studied by Cabral. In Mined Soil, the voiceover dialouge explores the space, surface, and textures of the images presented, proposing past and present definitions of soil as a repository of memory, exploitation, crisis, and treasure.