Blood in the Mobile (2010) Reviews

• A powerful documentary

  nightingaleron2011-11-30

  I watched this last night with my wife and we were captivated from start to finish. i had never heard of Frank Poulsen but after watching this did some research and he is obviously not new to the journalist world and documentaries.I had no idea that this mining and the corruption behind it was going on, and had he not used the tactics of the fact he was just wanting to make a film about how they were sending these people underground and getting these minerals, then i doubt if he would have gotten out of there alive. it seemed obvious that the fact he was making a movie seemed to excite some of those in charge with some even posing for the camera. If it had leaked out that he was in fact making an anti mining film, things would have been much worse. The facts found in this documentary, although disturbing is not going to see us all throwing away our beloved mobiles, and computers, but perhaps will make some think (as i do) why not give them aid and proper mining equipment to do the job safely.? They could still earn a good -if not better income using machines which would need operators and safer roads in and out would also generate work. The only problem is the dark side of the story where we have other forces taxing the miners of their minerals to buy arms for the bloody war that evolves around the whole process. Definitely worth viewing.

• Murder for minerals...

  poe4262011-07-12

  If ignorance is bliss, apathy is ecstasy. Why should We care if They suffer; if law enforcement officers die because We want to take a toke; or if children die in sweat shops or are buried alive in cave-ins in mines? The Swedish reporter whose conscience prompts him to go in search of answers finds "a responsible person to speak to" about as difficult as getting out of a cell-phone contract (which ain't easy, believe me). "One in three cell-phones is a Nokia," the reporter observes. And those cell phones require specific minerals that apparently can only be found deep underground in the Congo. So, in go the kids- and the tunnels collapse, burying them alive. Supply and demand in action. Or: "That's politics," one Kinshasa exec working both sides of the fence(s) says. "These people are out of control," one man warns the reporter: "Be careful." "You can't imagine what's going on, man," another man says, after recounting a horrific tale: "Pay attention," he urges. "This country is dead, anyway," one miner offers as he chips away at the earth. Demand and Supply; it's that simple.

• Loses it's power as a documentary by being too basic and elementary

  davideo-22012-02-15

  STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning After a UN report was published linking minerals used in mobile phones to financing of a bloody, brutal fifteen year war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Frank Piasechi Poulsen was unable to sleep with knowing this may be true of his beloved Nokia phone and so set on a mission taking him to conferences held in his native Denmark, to the mines in Walikalie where various militia groups control day to day life and boys as young as fourteen are sent down in risky conditions in the mines to risk their lives for a pittance, to a campaign group in the United States, all the way to Nokia's head office in Finland to get to the bottom of whether it is aware of unethical practises and whether it's 'socially responsible' image is really a sham. It's a scary but eerily true (and something we're all too aware of, if we're honest) fact that most of the material goods we're accustomed to and even depend upon in this day and age have almost certainly been manufactured and appropriated off the back of the exploitation of people in the poorest corners of the world, from mobile phones to the laptop I'm writing this review on now, and guiltily most of us turn a blind eye to this, desiring as we do the latest gadgets and gizmos. But Frank Piasechi Poulsen would appear to be so troubled at the thought of his phone being a 'blood mobile', he took a round the world trip in search of the answer. And what he's ended up with is this well intentioned but amateurish and basic, straight out documentary. From the off set, it seems less of an investigation into 'whether there is a link between the sale of mobile phones and the war in Congo' and more of a straight out statement, which Poulsen seems to just repeatedly go over and over, taking his time to really start digging into whether this is true, where it goes on and delivering facts and figures relevant to his project. It does serve as an eye opener to what really goes on, as we see the workers going down into the mines in terrible, unsafe conditions and hear tales of guerrilla soldiers committing atrocities against people, but Poulsen seems convinced from the out set that 'yes, the biggest mobile phone company in the world is guilty' and this ends up feeling like propaganda for this assertion. This is obviously a fairly cheap, low budget effort that Poulsen put his neck on the line to make and wanted the world to wake up and see. If only it had delved a little deeper into what goes on and not just hammered the basic, simplistic 'the minerals in the phones are financing the war in Congo' message, which just leaves it with a cheap, amateurish feel. **

• Unsubstantiated claptrap actually has caused a problem in DR Congo

  Harry-m-Newman2012-01-23

  Bloody awful! This movie portends to be a serious and relevant documentary aiming to influence the broader thinking community and relevant policy makers, but resolves as unsubstantiated and dangerous rubbish. Poulsen focuses on cassiterite, which is common, no issue. Coltan is more important for mobiles, but for most of the last 20 years the largest share of coltan actually came from Australia, Brazil and Canada. None of the serious minerals are extracted from the Bisie region, and the stuff he shows being mined is trivial and almost irrelevant. In fact Poulsen does not show conflict at Bisie. A few odd unattributed bullets. A lot of fit men working and cooperating together with much camaraderie, under the protection of the army for a few bucks on the side. Sure it is a pretty basic market, but what Poulsen would bring in is a big MNC, with jobs for a few. Poulsen would stop work for all the men at Bisie, and no alternatives are considered and offered for these poor folk. What happens to these poor men when they are thrown out of work by a conflict mineral declaration on a website somewhere? Real conflict and killing could result. All Poulsen alluded to was the "innuendo" of a problem, the bottom line is that Poulsen does not establish, justify or show anything remotely problematic. And the minerals used in mobiles don't actually come from here! This is shameful and shallow. His exploitation of the boy Chance is contemptible. His challenge on the Nokia HQ is childish and laughable, Michael Moore he is not. One can only feel sorry for all the bleeding hearts who swallowed Paulsen's shallow analysis. The problem IS Paulsen and his mobile phone, it's all about him and the bleeding hearts who have been duped by him. There is nothing in it for Chance and his country folk if his minerals are declared conflict minerals on a website on the other side of the planet. The real challenge here is to enable the locals to commercialize their industry formally, legally and quickly, not to drive it underground. Conflict minerals indeed, the beneficiaries of Paulsen's naïveté might actually be the opposite of what is intended ... Or does Mr P actually plan for the rich few to get wealthier on higher cassiterite prices for the stuff mined elsewhere? Interesting postscript; as a consequence of this movie and the facile political pressure which has ensued, the real heavy criminals have been inspired to move in and a real bloodbath has developed. A case where misguided idealism and unsubstantiated claptrap had actually caused a new and huge problem. Poulsen and his colleagues should be ashamed of themselves.