Minding Sand follows the sand mining industry on the beaches of Sierra Leone and the struggles associated with managing resource extraction. It aims to show the complex ties and entanglements involved in both the making and unmaking of beaches, reminding us how ecological and social concerns are inextricably interwoven.
Laura van Erp
Laura van Erp is a Dutch filmmaker and anthropologist, who received her master’s degree in Visual Anthropology from the University of Amsterdam. Minding Sand is her debut film, filmed on the beaches of Sierra Leone, where she lived and worked before conducting her master’s fieldwork. van Erp’s interests lie in how ecological and social concerns are often two sides of the same coin. In her work, she aims to highlight the complexities of living in the Anthropocene.