Once the Dust Has Settled

Located in the south of the Canadian province of Quebec, the town of Val-des-Sources is home to what was once the world’s largest asbestos mine. Indeed, the town and the mineral, which was long used for insulation but is now considered a carcinogen, are so inextricably linked that, until 2020, it was named Asbestos. In the short documentary Once the Dust Has Settled, the Canadian filmmaker Hervé Demers finds the town in a period of transition – long removed from its heyday as a thriving mining town, but with many residents uncertain about proposals to vote for a new name.