Kienze

Original title Kienze

Kienze is a cassiterite mine in the deep savannah of the Katanga province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the ore is dug by hand. Unemployment brings thousands of men of various backgrounds and languages to leave their home and live in crowded mining camps near ore deposits. Miners and their families must use their ingenuity to run their own economic system, resolve conflicts, maintain basic sanitary conditions and keep themselves entertained. Over time they developed their own social norms, material culture and vocabulary. This ethnographic film documents the extracting techniques, the concerns and the living conditions of the men who dig by hand the precious metals the West craves.

Author/s Jean-Philippe Marquis

Jean-Philippe Marquis is a young Canadian photographer and documentary filmmaker. He holds a BA in anthropology from the University of Montreal and a graduate diploma in journalism from Concordia University. A grant awarded by the International Development Research Center in Ottawa made him travel in 2012 to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to teach video in a community radio station and conduct investigations on the artisanal mining industry. Now based in British-Columbia, his current film work focusses on the impacts of mining, pipeline and oil sands developments in Western Canada.

Research Jean-Philippe Marquis
Photography Jean-Philippe Marquis
Sound Jean-Philippe Marquis
Editing Jean-Philippe Marquis