Educational Media Reviews Online

Earth is an attempt to show the enormous scale of human impact on the landscape as a result of development and mining. Long shots of haul trucks, backhoes, bulldozers and excavators working away in mines, quarries and construction sites are interspersed with interviews with the workers at the heart of each project.

Nikolaus Geyrhalter travels to seven locations across the globe. He begins at a construction site in San Fernando Valley, California. A construction worker jokes about being able to tell a girl in a bar, “I move mountains for a living.” This halfhearted joke sets the stage for the remainder of the conversations in the documentary. Many of the interviewees are proud of their knowledge of the job and the large amount of the land being moved on each project. However, when asked about the environmental impact of their work, they acknowledge the extent of damage being done to the planet.

The filmmaker also visits a brown coal mine in Gyongyos, Hungary; the Brenner Tunnel site at the Austria-Italy border; a marble mine in Carrara, Italy; a copper mine in Minas de Riotinto, Spain; and a former salt mine used for nuclear waste storage in Wolfenbüttel, Germany. Each interviewee expresses resentment of the work they are involved in. The film’s final location is in Fort McMurray, Alberta, at the site of the Athabasca oil sands. Geyrhalter changes the direction of the film and speaks to Indigenous residents about the devastation of their native lands. The residents are heartbroken as they are advised not to eat fish from the river and are blocked from accessing their forests. This is a fitting finale to the documentary. Throughout the film, breathtaking aerial views of the demolition and mining sites show how the planet’s surface is destroyed. The residents’ comments allow viewers to examine how the altered landscape also affects the human population.

Earth offers unique perspectives on mining and construction and is highly recommended for academic, public and high school library collections.

Awards

Prize of the Ecumenical Jury, Berlinale Forum (2019); International Award, Sheffield International Documentary Festival (2019); Best Sounddesign Documentary, Diagonale, Festival of Austrian Film, Graz (2019); Best Green Dox Award, Dokufest Prizren (2019); Harrell Award, Camden International Film Festival (2019); Special Award for Best Film on the Topic of Soil, Innsbruck Nature Festival (2019); Best Documentary, Österreichischer Filmpreis (2020)