Blood In The Mobile
We love our mobiles - we use them to call, text, as cameras, MP3 players, games handsets, diaries, GPSs etc. they have become an integral part of modern urban life. But what most of us do not know is that there is a bloody secret hidden in each one.
In this new film from Dogwoof, Blood in the Mobile exposes how the minerals used in the manufacture are tainted with blood and conflict. Out on 21 October, this is a wake up call to all mobile phone owners about how the manufacturers source the raw materials and the human cost of these 'blood minerals'.
The minerals used to produce mobiles are very rare, most are sourced from mines in the Eastern DR Congo which are run by warlords who then use the funds to finance their private armies. By purchasing these conflict minerals the phone companies are financing a civil war that, according to human rights organisations, has been the bloodiest conflict since World War II.
During the last 15 years the conflict has cost the lives of more than 5 million people and 300,000 women have been raped. The war will continue as long as armed groups can finance their warfare by selling minerals.
If you ask the phone companies where their suppliers get minerals from, none of them can guarantee that they aren’t buying conflict minerals from the Congo.
Wondering how his phone is made, director Frank Piasecki Poulsen decides to trace the raw materials it is made from.
He starts at the DR Congo where he gains access to the Congo’s most notorious tin-mine, Bisie, controlled by different armed factions, and where children work for days in narrow and dangerous mine tunnels to dig the minerals that end up in our phones.
Returning to Finland from the DR Congo, Frank visits Nokia the world’s largest phone company and struggles to find a representative who will speak. Frank wants them to guarantee that they are not buying conflict minerals and thereby financing the war in the Congo. Nokia cannot give him that guarantee.
Blood in the Mobile is a film about our responsibility for the bloody conflict in the Congo and our corporate and social responsibility. Another vital release from Dogwoof, the UK’s leading social issues film distributor, Blood in the Mobile is a film that every person who owns a mobile phone should see.
Blood In The Mobile is released 21st October.