Director MATTHIEU RYTZ (US 2022) 93 min
Narrated by Jason Momoa and framed around the launch of mining startup The Metals Company, then known as DeepGreen, the new film from Matthieu Rytz (Anote’s Ark, DocLands 2018) explores how the so-called “green revolution,” for all its benefit, might come at a huge cost — to the environment. With DeepGreen set to mine the ocean floor for minerals necessary to electric-vehicle batteries, the film shines a light on the uneasy intersection of science, politics, and commerce. The metals driving the seabed-mining race are crucial to the fragile deep-sea ecosystem, which of course supports ecosystems everywhere else on the planet; their removal undoubtedly will cause unpredictable damage. The film powerfully juxtaposes shots of massive mining machines with stunning images of the beautiful, surreal, often ephemeral creatures living at the ocean floor. Even in deftly revealing the global scale of this unfolding dilemma, the filmmakers somehow manage to leave us with glimmers of real hope.