Gravesend

*Gravesend* employs a documentary style to examine the extraction of coltan, a mineral used in the production of cell phones, laptops, and other high-tech devices. The film alternates between two locations: a technologically advanced, automated industrial facility in the West, where the metal is refined for microelectronic components, and the central Congo, where miners use basic tools such as shovels or their hands to extract, wash, and gather the ore on leaves. The film's realistic imagery is interspersed with black-and-white animation of the Congo River, whose winding form evokes themes of connectivity and communication, accompanied by a murmuring sound reminiscent of thousands of voices within a cell phone network. Meanwhile, coltan, which is traded at a very high price, plays a significant role in the financial dynamics of the militia conflicts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where decades of civil war have resulted in the deaths of millions.