Rasmane Tall, aka Bolo, is a Burkinabe teen working in a small scale goldmine. The film in which he’s the main subject, Boubacar Sangaré’s A Golden Life, shows that working those mines means having to stand up to adults about supplies. Who took more of their share of alcohol, cigarettes, or food? The off camera adult he’s arguing with tells him to “Eat now and starve later,” which applies to the precarity of their industry. During the following scene, part of the mine blows up, which they treat more as a setback instead of something to deter them from working the mines. Arguably, this documentary can fit in a human rights festival as much as it does a festival about environmentalism. But docs like this remind viewers that duh, part of the environment are the humans who use their bare hands as they take from the earth to survive.

A Golden Life‘s observational approach may put some distance between itself and its viewers. But it also has the right amount of complexity in depicting Bolo’s place within the mine as a workplace and the earth on which he toils. The documentary introduces his friends, the Cart Boys, who are younger than him, making this workplace more disturbing even if yes, Bolo can technically work in the mine and anywhere he chooses to, and no, the only ‘abusive’ scenario here is one of the bosses yelling at someone for almost killing his ‘kids’. The camera takes us to the tunnels, flashlights brightening up the underground and the teens there. Bolo puts something on his sickle to make it strong enough for it to strike gold. Headlines talk about how this industry causes political havoc. But this doc reminds us of the individuals who work but can’t really reap.