Salvage
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- Directed by: Amy C. Elliott
- Released: 2020 (educational)
- Year of Production: 2018
Running Time: 56 min
Language: English
Subtitle Options: English Closed Captions
Subjects: Sociology, Environmental Science
Salvage is about the city dump in Yellowknife, Canada - the largest (and one of the last) dumps in North America still open to the public for salvaging.
Beloved by locals and a thorn in the side of city bureaucrats, it has long had a central place in the town’s civic and social life. The film chronicles the critical five-year period when it changes from the wild free-for-all it has always been, to a tamed, regulated and essentially closed landfill.
All sorts of people go there to search for all sorts of things - from home goods to building supplies to food. That may sound strange, but it makes sense in Yellowknife, the remote capital of the Northwest Territories. Founded in 1935 as a gold mining town near the Arctic Circle, Yellowknife’s extreme remove isolated it over its short history and fostered a self-reliant frontier culture that is only now fading. Salvaging was born out of necessity and continues today as an expression of thrift and proud tradition.
The film follows a group of dedicated salvagers who must adjust as the dump evolves. As the city increasingly restricts access, the salvagers and the “Northern values” they personify become increasingly irrelevant. Yellowknife is well on its way to becoming a modern Western city, and the dump is no longer a great attraction. This transformation has profound ramifications for not only this band of residents but also the very character of their hometown.
All sorts of people go there to search for all sorts of things - from home goods to building supplies to food. That may sound strange, but it makes sense in Yellowknife, the remote capital of the Northwest Territories. Founded in 1935 as a gold mining town near the Arctic Circle, Yellowknife’s extreme remove isolated it over its short history and fostered a self-reliant frontier culture that is only now fading. Salvaging was born out of necessity and continues today as an expression of thrift and proud tradition.
The film follows a group of dedicated salvagers who must adjust as the dump evolves. As the city increasingly restricts access, the salvagers and the “Northern values” they personify become increasingly irrelevant. Yellowknife is well on its way to becoming a modern Western city, and the dump is no longer a great attraction. This transformation has profound ramifications for not only this band of residents but also the very character of their hometown.
SXSW 2019 Film Festival Official Selection
“In Salvage, director Amy C. Elliott (Wicker Kittens) plunges knee-deep in refuse and emerges with a highly entertaining, informative, briskly paced and quite profound documentary about Yellowknife’s (sadly) fading favorite pastime.” - Christopher Llewellyn Reed, Hammer to Nail
“Salvage is a fascinating documentary and viewers will gain perspective on what it means to be part of a consumer culture.” - Raquel Stecher, Quelle Movies
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