Film: Terre Toxique, Terre Fertile
[Toxic Land, fertile Land]
This short documentary film follows the quest of neighbors and organizations in the French suburbs to turn a plot of land exhausted by decades of industrial activity back into fertile ground. This brownfield, affectionately called the “small island” lies in the northern tip of a working class, post-industrial town located in the Parisian periphery and surrounded by the Seine river. City dwellers and community organizers have been given ten years to transform this plot into a replicable example of urban nature. But for any project to flourish, something must first be done about the layers of pollutants sedimented in the soil, bearing witness to the place’s history, and standing in the way of its future. The intention of the film is to give depth and texture to something that is usually taken for granted, soil, or in this case polluted soil, through the stories, imagination, sensory and material practices of those directly engaged with this plot of land.
Direction and direct sound: Mariana Rios Sandoval
Photography and editing: Claire Jarlan
Sound mixing: Simon Beyrand
Graphic design: Laurie Cezeur
Duration: 36mins
You can watch the film here. The film is subtitled in French and English.
The soil from the small island is heavily polluted and compacted as a result of 70 years of industrial activity. Nonetheless, a few months after this activity ceased, certain plants managed to take root in it. "If we come in 30 or 40 years the soil will be fertile again, but nonetheless still polluted" explains one of the film participants.
"It smells like real earth. I feel I am in the forest" says one of the film participants about the soil found in neighboring plot that, contrary to the brownfield, has been closed to the public for more than 20 years and today has been classified as a protected area. This participant, a park ranger and amateur historian, explains that from the end of the 19th century all heavy industry was banned from Paris and relocated in its periphery, where soil pollution is consequently more recent and dense.
Many projects take place in the former brownfield. One of them is a training in urban agriculture as part of a professional reintegration program. Many participants to the program are of migrant origin and face multiple barrier to enter the French job market. Some of them learn agricultural techniques for the first time, others come with extensive experience from their countries of origin.
Partnerships with scientists have been materialized in different experiments to grow prairies, trees and vegetables in polluted soil. Different kinds of soil are extracted, imported, mixed and crafted on site. The result is an open question that will begin to be answered in a few years.
"Can you tell me what's in the box" I asked film participants every time. The box contains a sample of soil from the brownfield that has the appearance of rubble and gravel. This participant tells me the industrial activity carried out in this site was mainly one involved in the construction of roads and housing: "the contents of this box summarize the urban history of Paris and its surroundings" he explains.