‘Concrete Turned to Sand’ Dives Into Oyster Farms, With Otherworldly Imagery From the ‘Backrooms’ DP (Exclusive Clip)
A film about oyster farms in British Columbia, Canada, sounds like a niche documentary. It is not. The cinematography behind the horror hit Backrooms is behind the camera, and the filmmakers are using the slow growth of shellfish to talk about climate change.
The Vancouver-based directors Jessica Johnson and Ryan Ermacora made Concrete Turned to Sand. It screens in the BFI London Film Festival’s Documentary Competition program starting Oct. 11. The film is shot on 35mm and described as “a radical refusal of the conventional documentary narrative.”
The World Premiere in Toronto
The movie had its world premiere at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in Toronto. Its international premiere comes next week in London.
The film does not want to explain climate change with charts and figures. The press notes say it “resists the impulse to explain, choosing sensation over exposition.” That means audiences will see glowing shellfish underwater and feel dread rather than hear statistics.
What the Oysters Show
Oysters take years to reach maturity in the Discovery Islands off the British Columbia coast. Around them, the pace of environmental change is accelerating.
Cox’s lens makes nature look almost sci-fi. The soundscape, created with sound artist and musician Scott Gailey, adds another layer. The film asks viewers to sit with the feeling rather than demand answers.
A Different Kind of Documentary
Johnson and Ermacora say their work explores “the convergence of labor, landscape and the political and economic forces that shape them.” In Concrete Turned to Sand, oyster farming becomes a lens for the collision of different time scales.
The film puts human labor and science into vastly different time frames. That is by design. The creative team says it “asks us to reconsider not only how we look at the state of the environment, but how we understand our own brief presence – and effect – within it.”
The Science Behind the Images
The filmmakers worked with scientists to provide insight into ocean acidification and its impacts. They offer perspectives on the geological timescale of our ecological circumstances. They experimented with optical and auditory techniques to create distance between viewer and subject.
The Exclusive Clip
The Hollywood Reporter has premiered an exclusive clip from the film. It gives audiences a glimpse into the world of oyster farms and the strange imagery Cox captures.
Why the Oysters Matter
The oysters are the anchor of the film. They represent a slow process in a fast-changing world. The filmmakers want viewers to consider the time scales humans live in compared to the geological time of the planet.
The film does not explain the science. It shows it. That is a deliberate choice.
How to See It
The screening starts Oct. 11 in the Documentary Competition program at the BFI London Film Festival. Audiences can also watch a trailer for the film online.
The film is a rare thing: a documentary that refuses to lecture. It asks viewers to feel first and think later. That is a bold approach, and it fits a topic that often gets treated as dry and distant.
The oysters are the stars. The climate is the subject. The camera is the tool. The sensation is the point.
Here is the order of events:
- The film’s world premiere was at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in Toronto.
- Its international premiere is next week in London, as part of the BFI London Film Festival’s Documentary Competition program.
- The screening starts Oct. 11.
Source material: “‘Concrete Turned to Sand’ Dives Into Oyster Farms, With Otherworldly Imagery From the ‘Backrooms’ DP (Exclusive Clip),” The Hollywood Reporter.
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