Raw Material

Material em Bruto (Raw Material) pays particular attention to past, present and possible future, mining activity in the region, using the mine as a metaphor to explore ideas of what is contained but not immediately visible within the landscape. Lithium represents a new ‘promise’ of wealth, the white gold that threatens to divide communities and impact the local environment.

Material em Bruto (Raw Material) speaks to that which is codified or concealed in the landscape by carefully listening to testimonies from the local community and by paying close attention to the marks, maps and traces that are etched into the land.

The film follows an investigative process of translation, one that is informed by the knowledge (both inherited and specialised) of local community and specifically people who work with geography, topography, archeology, agriculture and geology. This situated knowledge is transformed as local memories and stories coalesce into poetic, filmic form.