19 neue Filme für die 2018 Internationalen Uranium Film Festivals in Berlin & USA.
Anointed
Marshall Islands, 2018, Directors Dan Lin & Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner, poem video, 6 min.
Art & Awareness: A powerful poem video about the legacy of the US atomic bomb tests on the Marshall Islands and the Runit dome nuclear waste site in the Enewetak Atoll. https://www.kathyjetnilkijiner.com
Atomkraftwerk Zwentendorf
Austria/USA 2018, Director Hope Tucker, documentary, 17 min, English/German
As the only nuclear power plant in the world to be built and never opened, Atomkraftwerk Zwentendorf is a monument to the power of public protest and the potential of a democratic vote. Forty years ago, in what was only the second referendum ever to be held in their country, Austrians voted against opening a nuclear power plant that had already been built. In 2013, after catastrophic flooding across Europe, the filmmaker visited the mothballed nuclear power plant outside of Vienna that would have been powered by the same reactor as Fukushima. Humans built nuclear power plants. And humans can stop them. Democracy is a powerful thing. https://www.hampshire.edu/faculty/hope-tucker
Atomic Homefront
USA, 2017, Director: Rebecca Cammisa, 100 min, Documentary, English, Trailer https://www.atomichomefront.film
The City of St. Louis has a little known nuclear past as a uranium-processing center for the Atomic bomb. Government and corporate negligence led to the dumping of Manhattan Project uranium, thorium, and radium, thus contaminating North St. Louis suburbs, specifically in two communities: those nestled along Coldwater Creek – and in Bridgeton, Missouri adjacent to the West Lake-Bridgeton landfill. Another tragic and bizarre occurrence has been unfolding in Bridgeton, Missouri. In 1973, approximately 47,000 tons of the same legacy radioactive waste was moved from Latty Avenue and was illegally dumped into a neighborhood landfill named West Lake. This landfill became an EPA Superfund site in 1990. For the last seven years, an uncontrolled, subsurface fire has been moving towards an area where the radioactive waste was buried. Atomic Homefront is a case study of how citizens are confronting state and federal agencies for the truth about the extent of the contamination and are fighting to keep their families safe.
BOBBY BROWN HOMELANDS - LIVING WITH THE LEGACY OF BRITISH NUCLEAR TESTING
Australia, 2015, Produced and Directed by Kim Mavromatis and Quenten Agius, MAV Media in Association with NITV (National Indigenous TV Australia). Documentary, Australian English and Australian Aboriginal (Antikirrinya) with English subtitles, 5 min.
In the 1950’s and 1960’s the Australian government authorised British Nuclear testing at Emu Field and Maralinga in Outback South Australia. We journey with Antikirrinya Elder, Ingkama Bobby Brown to his homelands in outback South Australia where he explains the legacy of living with British Nuclear testing - how he witnessed the first tests on the Australian mainland at Emu Field (1953) and experienced the devastating affects of radioactive fallout on his family, people and country. This is the first time Bobby has spoken out about what he witnessed when he was a boy - what happened to his family and country and the people who went missing - during British Nuclear testing. British Nuclear testing was a breach of the King's Letters Patent, the founding document that established the state of South Australia (1836), which granted Aboriginal people the legal right to occupy and enjoy their land for always. How could they occupy and enjoy their land when their land was being blown up and irradiated by nuclear fallout. Trailer: https://vimeo.com/119231410 - www.kingsseal.cosm.au
Cem Anos da Urgeiriça / One Hundrd Years of Urgeiriça
UK/Portugal, 2016, Director Ramsay Cameron, Producer Molitor Productions, documentary, English/Portuguese, 52 min.
The film tells the story of the 100 year history of the Minas da Urgeiriça in Northern Portugal. The mine was one of the earliest uranium mines and was linked directly to Marie Curie, during the Second World War the British and American governments recognized its strategic importance and invested heavily in it to provide nuclear fuel for the Cold War. Later the mine was returned to Portuguese ownership and the dictator Salazar dreamt of creating a Portuguese nuclear industry, eventually it was the source of the uranium that Saddam Hussein procured for his attempt to build a nuclear reactor. Currently the site of the mine is being rehabilitated and decontaminated but it is only recently that the campaign for compensation for victims of radioactivity has achieved success. https://vimeo.com/170159651
Dignity at a Monumental Scale
USA, 2018, Director & Producer Kelly Whalen, Art-documentary, English, 8 min
When images of everyday Navajo life began appearing at a monumental scale on abandoned buildings, roadside stands and water towers across the Four Corners region, it was a surprise for many in the community to discover it was the work of Chip Thomas (aka Jetsonorama), a long-time resident known by many as a healer of another kind. https://vimeo.com/261408010
Freddy and Fuzmo Fix The World
UK, 2018, Directors & Producers: Christopher Murray, Luke Biddiscombe & Mikel Iriarte, further Producers Matt Rose, Laura Johnson, Muppet Animation, 27 minutes, English
Nineteen months after being sent to earth to fix the world’s problems, Fuzmo, an omnipotent alien-being jaded by the corporate machine, has lost all motivation and now lives in a gluttonous and lethargic lifestyle, leeching off his good-natured flatmate Freddy. In an effort to be productive, twenty-something Freddy tries to persuade Fuzmo into creating world peace. The intervention of new house guest Grumble divides the trio, who find themselves locked in a nuclear arms race, with the fate of Big City hanging in the balance. https://www.facebook.com/freddyandfuzmo/ & Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtItRNAH8Aw
Half Life: The Story of America’s Last Uranium Mill
USA, 2016, Director: Justin Clifton, Documentary, 12 min, English
In southeastern Utah, not far from many of America’s famed national parks, lies America’s last remaining uranium mill. After more than 36 years in operation, the leaders of the nearby Ute Mountain Ute Tribe’s White Mesa community worry that lax regulations and aging infrastructure are putting their water supply, and their way of life, at risk. Trailer: https://vimeo.com/161080821
Half-life in Fukushima / Demi-vie à Fukushima
Switzerland, France, 2016, Directors: Mark Olexa and Francesca Scalisi, Producers: Mark Olexa, Francesca Scalisi and Christian Lelong, Japaneses, English subtitles, 61 min.
Five years after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, Naoto Matsumura, a Japanese farmer ekes out a solitary existence within the radiation red zone.Here, the blowing wind is the soundtrack to Naoto's lonely days, spent cultivating his land and feeding his cattle.Naoto fights to build a new life in this post-apocalyptic landscape, fearlessly facing the silent danger of radioactivity. He is a guardian of the past and the symbol of humanity's need for a change. https://www.facebook.com/HalfLifeInFukushima/ & Trailer: https://vimeo.com/159476623
Kuannersuit / Kvanefjeld
UK, 2017, Directors Joshua Portway and Lise Autogena, Producer Lise Autogena, Documentary, 30 min, Danish and Greenlandic with English subtitles.
Lise Autogena and Joshua Portway’s film Kuannersuit / Kvanefjeld is a work in-progress, forming the first part of the artists’ long-term investigation into the conflicts facing the small, mostly indigenous, community of Narsaq in southern Greenland. Narsaq is located next to the pristine Kvanefjeld mountain; site of one of the richest rare earth mineral resources deposits in the world, and one of the largest sources of uranium. Greenland is a former colony of Denmark, which is now recognised as an “autonomous administrative division” of Denmark, supported economically by the Danish state. Many people see exploitation of mineral deposits as the only viable route to full independence. For generations the farming near Kvanefjeld has been Greenland’s only agricultural industry. This way of life may soon be threatened, as Greenland considers an open pit mine proposed by Greenland Minerals and Energy, an Australian company. The mine would be the fifth-largest uranium mine and second-biggest rare earth extraction operation in the world. Autogena and Portway’s film portrays a community divided on the issue of uranium mining. It explores the difficult decisions and trade-offs faced by a culture seeking to escape a colonial past and define its own identity in a globalized world. Trailer: https://vimeo.com/214697146
Nabikei
India, 2017, Director Shri Prakash, Documentary, English, 66 min
The American Southwest—especially the sovereign Indigenous nations of Acoma, Laguna, and the Diné or Navajo Nation—has a long history of uranium mining. Once home to a booming economy and proudly called the Uranium Capital of the World, these Indian reservations and poor White communities are now littered with old mines, tailings dams, and other uranium contamination, which is the legacy of this deadly industry. On the Navajo Nation alone, there are more than 500 abandoned uranium mine sites that need to be addressed. This film explores how colonialism, which came to the Southwest with Spanish conquest, has changed face in modern time, as it is played out in a new quest for mineral resources. Contaminated land, water, and air have left these poor communities helpless. Their efforts to gain justice have failed. Indigenous and poverty-stricken communities who suffered the most are trapped and exploited, as new mining companies continue to disregard the health and environment of these people with the lure of a better economy, jobs and new In Situ Leach uranium mining methods. Unfortunately, this is the same sad story repeated in other parts of the world including India, but in India it is the government itself undertaking the enterprise and repeating the same degradation in Jadugoda (Jharkhand).
SHRI PRAKASH is the first filmmaker from Jharkhand to bring a National Award in 2008 for his film ‘Buru Gara’ also his regional language fiction film ‘Baha’ received first international award for the state 2010. Using audio visual medium as a tool for social transformation and empowerment, National Award winner film maker, teaching film studies in St. Xavier’s College, Ranchi. https://www.facebook.com/Shriprakash23
Marathon for Justice
USA, 2016, Director Brian McDermott, Documentary, English, 44 min
“Marathon for Justice" tells the story of past and present environmental inequalities in the United States, and explores some of the ways in which Indigenous peoples and people of color have been disproportionately exposed to toxic chemicals and poisonous releases in the air, on the land, and in the water. The film introduces us to communities around the country who have experienced the detrimental effects of pollution, contamination and the degradation of their lands, and shows how these citizens are mobilizing in the long race for justice. The film takes us to Thoreau, New Mexico, where we learn about some of the consequences of past uranium mining on Najavo lands and meet Darlene Arviso, the Navajo "water lady" who has been delivering drinking water for the past eight years to 250 homes on the Eastern Navajo Reservation. Trailer: https://vimeo.com/193431644 and http://www.marathonforjusticefilm.com
65 Million Years Ago
Canada, 2018, Director and Producer: Paul Johnson Animation, 3 min, no dialogue
Dinosaurs have mastered nuclear energy, and for 7000 years have been accumulating radioactive waste. A laser-techno band called "Atomic Noize" have decided to put an end to this tomfoolery, and see their chance when a meteor is about to narrowly miss the Earth. World Premiere
Tale of a Toxic Nation
USA, 2018, Director Louis Berry, Producer Louis Berry, Documentary, 12:30 min, English
Tale of a Toxic Nation is the story of a nation rich in resources but weak in political influence. The Navajo Reservation has been left with over 500 abandoned uranium mines, toxic surroundings and an impossible clean up. The story has never been more relevant under an administration threatening to reinstate uranium mining in the area. https://vimeo.com/258337365
THE REPOSITORY
USA, 2017, Directors Daria Bachmann & Anna Anderson, Documentary, English, 80 min.
The Repository is an independent journalistic documentary about the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. The goal of this documentary is to tell the history of Yucca Mountain and explain the conflicting views on the proposed repository. In 1987, the U.S. Congress passed the Nuclear Waste Policy Act designating Yucca Mountain in Nevada's desert as the nation's sole repository for nuclear waste storage. Officials in Nye County, the host of the proposed nuclear waste repository, support the project, but the majority of Nevada's officials, residents and members of the state's delegation oppose the storage of nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain. https://www.therepositorymovie.com
The Safe Side of the Fence
USA. 2015, Director Tony West, Documentary, English,108 min.
"World War II's Manhattan Project required the refinement of massive amounts of uranium, and
St. Louis-based Mallinckrodt Chemical Works took on the job. As a result, the chemical company's employees would become some of the most contaminated nuclear workers in history. This documentary explores the legacy that St. Louis is still coping with, from workers who became ill - to the challenges of dealing with the fallout of creating some of the world's first nuclear waste.The story is not unique to St. Louis, as more than 300 facilities across America would become part of the race to build the bomb, and be forced to deal with many of the same issues. A detailed look into what some of the men and women went through inside these plants, and how decisions made in the past affect us all today. http://www.thesafesideofthefence.com
Too Precious to Mine
USA, 2017, Director Justin Clifton, Documentary, English, 10 min
The Grand Canyon is an irreplaceable natural treasure that draws over 5.5 million visitors to the park each year. Yet, irresponsibly operated uranium mines located on federal public land just miles from the North and South Rims threaten to permanently pollute the Grand Canyon landscape and the greater Colorado River. Trailer: https://vimeo.com/241576331
Uranium Derby
US, 2017, Director Brittany Prater, documentary, English, 83 min.
A young woman’s investigation into her hometown’s secret involvement in the Manhattan Project triggers a chain reaction of encounters through which it becomes clear that the topic of nuclear waste has been more successfully buried than the waste itself. Uranium Derby portrays the manner in which Superfund site cleanup is often mishandled in the U.S., and informs the viewer about how toxic waste can spread, and why waste-site cleanup is often prolonged or avoided altogether. Because private companies contracted to clean up waste sites tend to hold considerable political leverage, they are able to devise strategies that greatly extend cleanup schedules, thus ensuring the longest possible inflow of government funds. http://uraniumderby.com/
UNSILENCED: Anti-Nuclear Movement in Turkey
Turkey/Japan, 2017, Director: Takuya MORIYAMA, 20 minutes, Original Language: Turkish Subtitled Language: English
Six years after Fukushima a young Japanese filmmaker analyses the anti-nuclear movement in Turkey. The anti-nuclear movement continues for 40 years in Turkey, which has 3 nuclear power plant projects today. Because Turkey was affected by the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986, local people are aware of risk of nuclear power plant. This short documentary shows why and how Turkish people resist against nuclear project at the time of 30 years after Chernobyl. World Premiere.
more films to come....
