Normetal

Nain is a remote Inuit community on the coast of Labrador that has existed peacefully for two hundred years. Now, one of the worlds largest deposits of nickel and copper has been discovered 50 kilometres away, at Voisey Bay. As commercial interests prepare to exploit the regions natural resources, Nain finds itself standing in the eye of a storm. The promise of sudden wealth and jobs for all is clouded by the spectre of environmental damage, the unsettled question of Aboriginal land claims, and the influx of hundreds of newcomers which will, inevitably, bring with it a new set of social problems. These issues have already created divisions among the people of the town. Some are eager to benefit from the coming economic boom, while others see the changes as threatening a way of life which has been successful for generations. A storm of social, political and economic forces is about to be unleashed on the residents of Nain. It will change their lives forever.

Le film nous présente Normétal, ville minière. À la surface, le train-train quotidien; au sous-sol, des hommes bardés de cuir et d'acier, des machines puissantes et mystérieuses qui cherchent, dans l'obscurité, du minerai de cuivre. (Film non signé par le réalisateur.)

May 9, 1992. The Westray mine in Pictou County, Nova Scotia, explodes, instantly killing all 26 men working underground. Mining coal in Pictou County is notoriously dangerous. It claimed the lives of 650 men in the last 100 years, the same number that died fighting in both world wars. But Westray was supposed to be different: a high-tech operation that would finally make coal mining safe. Westray is a brilliant, innovative documentary that re-creates some of the Westray disaster's most harrowing moments. It focuses on the lives of three widows and three miners lucky enough not to be underground that day when the methane and coal dust ignited. But their lives were torn apart by the events. Meet some of the working men, who felt they had no option but to stay on at Westray. And wives, who heard the rumours, saw their men sometimes bloodied from accidents, and stood by them, hoping it would all turn out all right. This film reaches beyond Westray. It's also about working people everywhere--whose lives are often entrusted to companies that violate the most fundamental rules of safety and decency in the name of profit.