What would it mean to confront the ambivalent reality of globalization rather than live in denial of its savage effects? Steve McQueen's recent film Gravesend (2007) both poses and represents one response to this question. The film opens with shots in warm golden hues of the technoscientific refinement of columbite-tantalite in a British laboratory where faceless technicians melt down and purify the metallic ore and automated machines process the material in an antiseptic environment. Filmed with precision camerawork that mimics the efficient movements of the lab's pneumatic devices, this footage is soon intercut with recordings of manual labor in the Congo jungle, where men are seen prospecting for the valuable mineral, digging deep holes in the earth and using their hands to hammer the mineral from the rocks.
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