Buddha Weeps in Jadugoda

(Ragi Kana Ko Bonga Buru)
India, 1999, 52 min, English
Documentary
Not part of the Competition

"Buddha Weeps in Jadugoda" is a documentary film on uranium mining and its deadly impacts on the tribal people living near the Jadugoda mine, mill and tailings dam, in the East Singhbhum district of Jharkhand (India). Unsafe mining, milling and tailings management by UCIL in this area for almost 30 years has resulted in excessive radiation, contamination of water, land and air, destruction of the local ecology, and lead for to genetic mutation, and slow death for the people of the region. The film attempts to depict the gross misuse of power by the authorities in displacing the original inhabitants of the region, the utter lack of concern for internationally accepted norms and safety precautions in the handling of uranium and its by-products, and their callousness of its disastrous impact on the people and the region.

Director Shri Prakash present, Berlin 2012

Q&A with Shriprakash + RAOUF DABBAS, Amman 2014

Director's statement

“We dedicate this film to those surviving children whose consciousness today is being formed and who, we are certain, will one day come up with answers for a saner and more just world-community."

Shri Prakash 

“Buddha Weeps in Jadugoda was one of the most remarkable and most important films of our Uranium Film Festival. In a time, when the Governments of Brazil and India are creating nuclear energy and uranium partnerships, it is important that such critical films are crossing the borders between our countries too.”

Norbert G. Suchanek, Uranium Film Festival Director