Educational Media Reviews Online

"Gold is a curse." This simple, declarative sentence offered by The Shadow of Gold could easily have served as this somber work's title. Through interviews, narratives, and vignettes of miners, investors, and others involved in the extraction and sale of gold, one gains grim revelations of the human and environmental costs of gold production.

The film does not offer a linear presentation of mining, refinement, processing, to sales of gold. Rather, it keeps the viewer off-balance as it darts about the world, from China to Peru and other nations, at various steps in the process from ground to consumer product. Its personal stories are heart-wrenching, demonstrating dire risks of injury, death and disease in small and large scale operations. The primary and secondary impacts on the environment, particularly in Peru, are explored. Further, there are far too many legal loopholes, and not enough regulation or political will to reform practices.

Nevertheless, The Shadow of Gold makes some room for optimism, citing farmers in the Congo supplementing their incomes with gold extraction, and some measures of monitoring have reduced "blood gold" money from flowing to arms sales. Innovations have helped to automate the process, and advocacy groups are scrutinizing work conditions.

The "dark underbelly" does not begin to tell the story of The Shadow of Gold. The film builds feelings of desperation, sorrow, and outrage. Moreover, it reinforces the responsibilities of consumers, among others, to conscientiously ask questions about how one's gold is obtained.

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