FILM

“Serpent River lies in what seems like unspoilt territory in North Ontario. White-water rivers crest elemental rocks. But Serpent River springs out at a Uranium Mine and its tailings (radioactive waste). The buildings of this self-styled  ‘Uranium Capital of the North’ are the Rio Tinto Zinc Company. Film begins and ends suspended in panes of ice. It is winter. The woman worker moves through an icebright, cosmetically clean-looking town. Middle of the film is fiery and sulphurous: these are the toxic fields of the Acid Plant, built on native Canadian land, to serve the ‘leaching out’ of Uranium. The purity of the river and the innocence of the children playing on the ice, is mutated.” (Sandra Lahire)