Hot Docs 2024: Asbestos (by Vanessa Gauvin-Brodeur) | Review
The renaming of a small Quebec town crystallizes a poignant narrative of resilience amidst economic upheaval in Asbestos. Skillfully crafted, Vanessa Gauvin-Brodeur’s evocative documentary explores with humanity the identity renewal of a town that has experienced a story of rise and fall.
In 2020, Asbestos, a small town located in the Estrie region of Quebec, became Val-des-Sources, thanks to the vote of its citizens, who decided to turn the page on over a century of history. The town was established in the 1890s around the discovery and exploitation of an asbestos deposit, the Jeffrey Mine, from which it derived its name. The mine was operated for many years, thriving as one of the world’s largest. The mining industry was the economic engine of the town and its surroundings, offering attractive working conditions and compensation. But everything changed suddenly when asbestos was recognized as toxic, causing lung diseases and cancers in humans.
In the short film Asbestos, which debuted at Hot Docs 2024, first-time documentary director Vanessa Gauvin-Brodeur meets René, Serge, and Charles-Émile, three residents of the town and former employees of the mine. They nostalgically recount the prosperous times and express their feelings of decline today: “We never would have believed that one day Asbestos would have no future, no more mine, that we would want to hide its past.”
This sentiment is reinforced by the fact that two-thirds of the film are shot in winter, with low light. The streets are deserted, giving the impression of a ghost town slowly dying. The director films René, Serge, and Charles-Émile in the present day, in the intimacy of their homes and in places in the town that have symbolic significance for them, such as the demolition site of one of the mine’s mills, where Serge had participated in construction for several years. The director also uses archival footage of the mine, the town in operation, and festive family scenes, which further accentuate the contrast with the present day. We hear in parallel the voice-over testimonies of the three protagonists, who try to express their profound distress, their sense of loss of identity, facing a part of their life and their history that is now being demolished, disowned, or even mocked.
“When you go to a normal town, you find your landmarks. Here, you don’t find much. It’s a fifty-year hole in our history,” says Charles-Émile, who has made it his duty to tell his disappearing story through a blog. “I am one of the last representatives of my generation still alive and who can still say what we really experienced. […] We leave a false image of reality. That’s what I would like to correct, […] by writing the memories of my past, my town, and my heritage.”
When territories evolve abruptly, when the economy collapses overnight, how do you cope with the loss of identity and the socio-economic issues that result within the local populations? This is the issue that Vanessa Gauvin-Brodeur deals with in Asbestos. An issue that continues to intensify today, with the acceleration of territorial recomposition due to climate issues, and which reminds us of the highly successful Where the Trees Bear Meat by Alexis Franco, presented at Visions du Réel 2024. The director concludes her first documentary short film on a resilient note: as the new name of Val-des-Sources is raised at the entrance of the town, the director materializes an orientation towards the future and invites the inhabitants of Val-des-Sources to write their future, amidst flowered streets and green gardens.
The 31st edition of Hot Docs – Canadian International Documentary Festival is taking place from April 25th to May 5th, 2024 in Toronto, Canada. Explore our coverage here.
