Texada

“Some days go very fast, and some weeks go very slow,” says a worker in the quarries of the Canadian island of Texada. The human experience of time is relative, but it is nothing compared to the timescale of the limestone being excavated. This stone carries history —not just of humanity, but of the earth itself. And we dig it up, crush it, and use it to make things like toothpaste.

The virtual reality documentary Texada contrasts these two experiences of time: the human and the geological. The images alternate between shots of the island and more abstract animations. Meanwhile, island residents talk in voice-over about their lives, and someone else tries to impress upon us the incomprehensible immensity of time and the insignificant role of humanity within it: “We’re just a little twig on the great big tree of life, out there on a limb somewhere.”