Dust of Life

In 1954, Franju made this film commissioned by France’s National Safety Institute. It focuses on silica dust, which, with hindsight, mirrors the problems of another dust, asbestos, along with many others. Who would’ve thought that in January 2021, crystalline silica dust would be classed as carcinogenic and lead to protective measures for workers being implemented? “Modernisation is fighting what it partly helped to create” he tells us.
In the way it’s made, the film bears witness to its era: the director unfurls a presentation-poem that savours the didactic and sensitive quality of the commentary. A blend of science and poetry that examines humankind’s place in the environment, the heart of this reflection as seen in the final sequence: the explosion of a nuclear bomb. The radioactive dust that spreads everywhere shows the extent of our capacity to destroy ourselves at the same time as destroying our surroundings.

Julia Pinget
Director