The Rock Speaks
The Rock Speaks is a haunting hybrid documentary that unearths the hidden cost of our digital lives, as it exposes the exploitative and violent industry set up around the mining of cobaltโa rare earth mineral used in a plethora of modern technology. Through an amalgamation of generative AI, archive imagery and narration, the film channels the voice of a rock brought to the surface from a cobalt mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo. As landscapes are gutted and communities displaced, the rock bears witness to a modern wave of colonialism disguised as progress. South African artists Francois Knoetze and Amy Louise Wilson, alongside Congolese historian Joe-Yves Salankang Sa-Ngol, craft a poetic indictment on power, greed, and the myth of advancement, as the film reveals the human and environmental cost of modern technology. The Rock Speaks argues that the looming ecological and humanitarian crisis lies not ahead, but beneath our feet, echoing cries from the dark underbelly of the earth.
Film Stills
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