BERLIN INTERNATIONAL URANIUM FILM FESTIVAL October 15th to 18th, 2020, CineStar-Kino in the Kulturbrauerei, Prenzlauer Berg
FESTIVAL PROGRAM
Thursday, October 15th / 7.30pm (entrance starts 6.45 pm) Opening
THE SOVIET GARDEN (Grădina Sovietică) - Moldova / Romania, 2019, director Dragoș Turea, produced by Parmis Film Studio and RovaFilm, documentary, with English subtitles, 76 min. German premiere. Dragos Turea will come to Berlin.
GREEN WARRIORS - SOUTH AFRICA: TOXIC TOWNSHIPS - France / South Africa, 2018, director Martin Boudot, documentary, English, 54 min.
THE BEGINNING OF THE END OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS - Spain, 2019, director Álvaro Orús, producer Tony Robinson, documentary, German with German subtitles, 56 min. German premiere. Q and A with Tony Robinson
Presentation of the radio documentary SPRINKLED by Léa Promaja, France, Switzerland 2018, German, 55 min., Followed by a discussion with the author and ICBUW members. Location: Marienstraße 19/20, 10117 Berlin, conference room, rear building, 1st floor.
Film Infos / Synopsis
VOM SINN DES GANZEN (About the Meaning of Everything) - The Network of Physicist Hans-Peter Dürr (1929 - 2014) - Germany, 2020, Director Claus Biegert, Production Biegertfilm, music by Zoro Babel, Documentary, 103 min, German/English with English subtitles - Hans-Peter Dürr, as a physicist he followed the footsteps of the world re-nowned Werner Heisenberg. As a peace activist he was torn between his PhD supervisor Edward Teller and peace Nobel laureate Josef Rotblat, both of them involved in the Manhattan project during World War II. When it became obvious that Hitler would not built an atomic bomb (Wunderwaffe), Rotblat immediately resigned from Los Alamos, Teller stayed and became the "father of the hydrogen bomb". In the early 1950s, the young and naive Hans-Peter from Stuttgart, Germany, stepped into the bomb euphoria in Berkeley, California. It shaped his life. He became a role model for a scientist with responsibility.
The film offers previously un-known material about encounters of Dürr with Teller and Rotblat. A film with Franz Alt, Angelika Claussen, Daniel Dahm, Sue Dürr, Giselle Full, Tiokasin Ghosthorse, Hartmut Grassl, Isabelle Krötsch, Rudolf zur Lippe, John D. Liu, Josef Rotblat, Heinrich Saller, Erhard Seiller, Rupert Sheldrake, Edward Teller, Ulrich Warnke, Andreas Weber, Konstantin Wecker, Ernst-Ulrich von Weizsäcker. Claus Biegert is a journalist, author, film-maker, radio reporter and human rights activist, based in Munich, Germany. He published numerous books on Native Americans and environmental issues. For many years he had his own radio program at the Bavarian Public Radio. In 1979/80 he collaborated with visual artist Rainer Wittenborn and many Cree hunters in the multi-media exhibition “James Bay Project – A River Drowned by Water”, which traveled – under the patronage of the Goethe Institute – the world for almost ten years. Among his films are “The Secret and the Sacred – Two Worlds at Los Alamos”(2001), “Winona LaDuke – Thunderbird Woman”(2003), “Leonard Peltier: I am the Indian Voice”(2013) and “Exit 16 – Onondaga Nation Territory”(2014). Biegert is the initiator of the World Uranium Hearing, 1992 in Salzburg, Austria, and the co-founder of the international Nuclear-Free Future Award, which started in 1998. https://www.biegert-film.de
SAVE THE FLINDERS - Australia, 2019, Director Kim Mavromatis, Documentary, 10 min, English - People of the Flinders Ranges Speak Out (Graziers, Tourism operators, Adnyamathanha and Nukunu people, residents, business owners and doctor) to Protect the Flinders, their communities and future generations from Radioactive Nuclear Waste Dumps. If climate change is the defining issue of our time, then nuclear waste is the hangover. Kim Mavromatis is Multi-Award-Winning Mixed Media Creator, Filmmaker, Cinematographer, Editor, Visual Artist and he is living in South Australia near the proposed nuclear waste dump sites. He says about his film: "Why on earth does the Australian Federal government want to dump nuclear waste in the Flinders Ranges, on a floodplain, in a seismically active region, bordered by natural springs, in one of Australia’s most iconic tourism destinations, or on Eyre Peninsula farmland near Kimba, in South Australia? I live along the transport route, near the 3 proposed dump sites in the Flinders Ranges and Kimba on Eyre Peninsula farmland, in South Australia. For 5 years I have been filming this story. Save the Flinders is one of 7 short films in the series (self funded). In this film, people of the Flinders Ranges Speak Out - ordinary people have been forced into activism to protect their communities and future generations." Trailer: vimeo.com/365455085
A RADIANT COUNTRY / EIN STRAHLENDES LAND - Germany, 2019, Director Marvin Oppong, Producer Marvin Oppong Filmproduktion, Documentary, 70 min - How dangerous radioactive radiation can be, is known not only since Tschernobyl and Fukushima. Radioactive radiation is much more widespread in Germany than we think. The investigative journalist Marvin Oppong travelled trough all of Germany with a Geiger-Mueller counter searching for radioaktive spots. His journey takes him to nuclear sites, to a radioactive contaminated shopping center, to uranium mine dumps in eastern Germany and to a radiant football ground next to a daycare facility for children. Trailer: vimeo.com/334087466
PROTECTING OUR HOMELAND: NUHE NENE BOGHILNIH - Canada, 2017, Director Ashton Janvier in collaboration with the Wapikoni team, Producer Wapikoni, Documentary, 4 min, English and Dene, English Subtitled Language - North of La Loche there is a beautiful area called Patterson Lake. Its landscape and natural resources are important to the Denesuline people. This territory is used for family camping, swimming and site seeing. But the Federal Government and uranium companies want to mine this beautiful land. Uranium is right under the lake. They are planning to drain the lake and destroy all the surrounding natural resources, which is completely devastating. Filmmaker Ashton Janvier is a young Denesuline from the community of La Loche. He attends University through a program at the Clearwater River Dene Nation School on the reserve. He writes about his film: „I believe it is important to educate people on what is happening in Northern Saskatchewan. Protecting our Homeland is to inspire the young generation to start caring about our lands ands cultures. It is also to promote awareness on the uranium mining exploration in Patterson lake, SK.“ Trailer: www.wapikoni.ca/movies/nuhe-nene-boghilnih-protecting-our-homeland
NUCLEAR FREE POWER TO THE PEOPLE / ATOMLOS DURCH DIE MACHT - Austria, 2019, Director Markus Kaiser-Mühlecker, 74 min, Documentary, German/English with English subtitles - Austria is the only country which built a fully functional nuclear power plant and after peoples vote against it in 1978 didn't engage it. The film traces the anti-nuclear-movement in Austria, with all aspects of nuclear power in Europe, showing the history and provides an outlook on the future. As meta-theme the activities of the NPO "Atomstopp" are shown, their fight alongside democratic institutions from local government to EU-offices. So the film shows the very multifaceted topic with regards to technology, health, environment, politics and democracy, public movements and energy policy. Filmmaker Markus Kaiser-Mühlecker studied film, video and audio at the University of Applied Sciences Salzburg and sociology at the University of Vienna. Since 2005 he has been living and working as a documentary and corporate filmmaker near Linz. „Nuclear free power to the people“ is his second feature length film and received in 2019 the RAGFF Venezia best retro avantgarde documentary feature film award. Trailer: www.kmfilm.at/portfolio/atomlos/
THE ZONE - The Zone - Road To Chernobyl - The movie directors, Alessandro Tesei and Pierpaolo Mittica , joined a group of stalker and penetrate in Chernobyl exclusion zone, filming one of the most incredible and adventurous trip ever made. It’s a romantic story of friendship and love for an ended world, a pure survival trip among soviet memories and wild and contaminated nature, and a loving tribute to the famous Tarkovskij ‘s movie “Stalker”, the Strugatzki brothers’ book “Roadside picnic”, and the videogame “S.T.A.L.K.E.R.”.
Both authors are experts on issues related to radioactive contamination, and have produced over the years various video and photographic reportages in the most polluted areas of the world, including Fukushima , Kysthym, Magnitogorsk, Karabash. Historical partners and supporters of the Volunteer Association Mondo in Cammino , with which they produced the documentary “Fukushima no Daymio” and “Behind the Urals”, winners of several national and international awards. Trailer: https://www.thezonemovie.com/en/ and New Trailer https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=388320125484696
GREEN WARRIORS - SOUTH AFRICA: TOXIC TOWNSHIPS (VERT DE RAGE - AFRIQUE DU SUD: TOXIC TOWNSHIPS) - France/South Africa, 2018, Director Martin Boudot, 54 min, English - Johannesburg is considered the most uranium-contaminated city in the world. Waste dumps from around 600 abandoned mines sit next to residential communities, blowing polluted dust into homes and contaminating the soil and water supplies. To get a sense of the sheer extent of the problem, Martin Boudot and his team of researchers investigate. Equipped with a Geiger counter, they uncover some dangerous realities. Martin Boudot is a French investigative journalist and documentary filmmaker based in Paris, France. He is the host and producer of Green Warriors, a series of scientific investigations on environmental issues, broadcast on France 5, Al-Jazeera, Amazon Prime. He graduated from the Professional Journalism School of Tours (EPJT) and achieves his cameraman training at the University of Northern Colorado, USA. He then worked for several TV stations & agencies like ABC News in Denver, Premières Lignes Télévision, France Televisions, Canal + and Arte. Trailer: vimeo.com/365792453
THE BEGINNING OF THE END OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS - Spain, 2019, director Álvaro Orús, producer Tony Robinson, documentary, German with German subtitles, 56 min - On the 7th of July 2017, 122 countries voted in favour of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Countries that don’t have nuclear weapons but live under their threat voted for a ban. Without the knowledge of most of their citizens, the governments of the world’s nuclear powers didn’t vote, and yet the ban went ahead. Something new is happening. This documentary film about efforts to bring a nuclear weapon ban treaty into international law and the role of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, ICAN, is told through the voices of leading activists from several different organizations and countries and the president of the negotiating conference. Finally, the film shows what can be done by anyone to help bring the treaty into force and to stigmatise nuclear weapons until they are finally eradicated.Trailer: www.theendofnuclearweapons.com
THE ATOMIC ADVENTURE /L'AVENTURE ATOMIQUE - France, 2019, Director Loic Barché, Doc Fiction, 25 min, French with English subtitles - Algeria in the year 1961. France has just detonated its fourth atomic bomb. A group of seven soldiers is sent to the point of impact to take samples and measure radioactivity. But the further they go, the more the Captain, a war veteran in his fifties, is confronted with the paradoxes of a changing world, a world obsessed with progress. Trailer: https://vimeo.com/380460748 - More info: en.unifrance.org/movie/47875/the-atomic-adventure
DAY OF THE WESTERN SUNRISE - United States, 2018, Director Keith Reimink, Animation Documentary, 75 min, Japanese with English subtitles - Cold war in the 1950ies. The US testing nuclear bombs in the Pacific. 23 Japanese fishermen aboard the tuna trawler Daigo Fukuryu Maru (Lucky Dragon No. 5) accidentally encounter the detonation of Castle Bravo, an early hydrogen bomb test conducted by the US. All 23 men became sick from acute radiation poisoning and were quarantined for 15 months upon arrival back to Japan. In the hospital, they endured endless medical tests and scrutiny from Japanese and American doctors. They also watched their esteemed colleague, Aikichi Kuboyama, pass away from exposure. Having all received high doses of radiation, the surviving fishermen were forced to consider their own mortality. In June of 1955, the 22 fishermen were sent home only to discover their problems were far from over. Because of the ignorance surrounding 'hibakusha,' or ‚radiation-affected people,' the fishermen were ostracized from their communities. They lost friends and loved ones, were openly ridiculed, and eventually forced into hiding.
'Day of the Western Sunrise' is an animated Japanese language documentary that follows three survivors from the Lucky Dragon. Now in their 80's, their story is a reminder that the human race has the ability to make decisions for both good and ill, and those decisions can affect generations. Filmmaker Keith Reimink graduated from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts with a BFA in Film and TV Production. His first documentary, the award-winning 'No Horizon Anymore,' chronicled a year he spent living and working at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. He writes: „It is the belief of the filmmakers that above the ideas of politics, religion, and financial gain, must be the ability to create a peaceful and thriving society. Operation Castle, consisting of six thermonuclear detonations over the course of five months, happened at a time when the focus of the world centered on strength, domination, and fear rather than unity and acceptance. The global impact of these thermonuclear tests is still felt today by the Marshallese who were displaced from their homes on Rongelap and Bikini and are unable to return, and by the Japanese citizens who look to international governments to release still classified documents.“ Trailer: vimeo.com/288756720
THE SEAL OF THE SUN (TAIYO NO FUTA) - Japan, 2016, Director Futoshi Sato, Executive Producer Tamiyoshi Tachibana, Cast: Yukiya Kitamura, Kenji Anan, Sota Aoyama, Yuri Nakamura, Fiction 130min, Japanese with German subtitles - 2:46 PM on March 11, 2011. The earthquake hits and Japan is thrown into a panic. The cooling system at the Fukushima Daiichi Power Station goes down and the temperature rises. The countdown to an even more enormous catastrophe has started. Director Futoshi Sato, says about his film: „Born in the area that was devastated by the 2011 earthquake, I wanted to talk about it, but I was wondering what might be the approach to make it a movie. For his part, Mr. Tamiyoshi Tachibana wondered about the possibility of adapting the book written by Tetsuro Fukuyama, Deputy Director of the Cabinet of Naoto Kan. This book `The Nuclear Crisis – A Testimony from the Residence of the Prime Minister´ is a fundamental work that tells the truth of the events that occurred on those days at the Residence. If this project was able to start and be realized, it is thanks to the total and complete implication of Tamiyoshi Tachibana. Trailer: https://filmstopia.com/thriller/seal-sun-original-title-taiyo-no-futa-of...
BALENTES - THE BRAVE ONES (I CORAGGIOSI) - Italy/Australia, 2018, Director Lisa Camillo, Documentary, 84 min, English - When Sardinian-Australian Lisa Camillo, an anthropologist and film director, returns to Sardinia she finds that large chunks of her homeland are devastated by mysterious bombs. On her journey she uncovers secret NATO bombing ranges. Tests with depleted uranium weapons have been having devastating consequences on the local human and animal population. Lisa joins the islanders’ fight to reclaim their land and livelihoods and, in doing so, she is learning about herself and her roots. “Balentes’ is a Sardinian word indicating ‘a man of valour’, who strives for social justice, defending the weak against the oppressors. Sardinians have always been a warrior people, a fact sometimes forgotten, combatting the many invaders landing on their shores over the ages with courage and valour. Lisa Camillo is a passionate human rights driven filmmaker, anthropologist, presenter and writer. She has directed, produced and wrote award-winning documentaries and films that travelled across the world in several international film festivals. http://www.balentesfilm.com
THE SOVIET GARDEN (Grădina Sovietică) - Moldova/Romania, 2019, Director Dragoș Turea, Producer Parmis Film Studio and RovaFilm, Documentary, 76 min, Romanian with English Subtitles - Dragosh, filmmaker from Moldova which was formerly part of the Soviet Union, discovers a secret scientific experiment. Through nearly ten years of investigations, Dragosh unveils the secret plan of Nikita Khrushchev to transform Moldova into a Soviet Garden through the application of atomic science in local agriculture, that created an agricultural Chernobyl. Soil and plants in Moldova have been subjected to radiation experiments to become more resistant and productive. The price for those experiments is paid today: radioactive contaminated lands, an still uninformed population, more and more people suffering from cancer, infested equipment hidden in bunkers, reduced biodiversity, lost seed heritage. And many of those who were involved in the radioactive experiments have died very early.
Filmmaker Dragos Turea was born in Chisinau, Moldova in 1980 and studied Audiovisual Communication at the Academy of Theatre and Film, Bucharest and has a Master’s Degree in Film, at the Chisinau Academy of Music, Theatre and Arts. He worked as a Producer for Publika TV, Prime TV and Jurnal TV. Already in 2010 he started ‘’The Soviet Garden“. Trailer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBtHarJ_f3o - Info: A new documentary about the radioactive Soviet past of Moldova “The Soviet Garden" https://www.moldova.org/en/a-new-documentary-about-the-soviet-past-of-mo... -soon-released-the-soviet-garden
VALLEY OF THE GODS (Dolina Bogów) - Poland/Italy/Luxemburg/USA, 2019, Director Lech Majewski, Producer Lech Majewski and Filip Rymsza, Co-production Poland-Luxembourg, Royal Road Entertainment, Cast: Josh Hartnett, John Malkovich, John Rhys-Davies, Bérénice Marlohe, Keir Dullea, Steven Skyler, Joseph Runningfox, Ficition, 126 min, English - The film weaves together three narrative threads: Navajo archaic legend about gods locked inside the rocks of the Valley of the Gods; a story of the wealthiest person on earth, Wes Tauros (John Malkovich), who lives hidden away from the world suffering from a personal tragedy; and that of the narrator, John Ecas (Josh Hartnett), who works as a copywriter at Tauros’s company. After a traumatic split from his wife, John starts writing his boss’s biography and accepts an invitation to his mansion. At this time Tauros’s company, which mines uranium ore, buys the Valley of the Gods to bore tunnels through the sacred land. The shattered peace of Navajo ancestors makes the rocks give birth to an avenger. Teaser: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J80EKYiDcMw
Film director Lech Majewski is also a poet, painter, media artist and writer. Working internationally, he builds his visions in his paintings, films, installations, novels, theatre and opera stagings. He studied at Krakow Academy of Fine Arts and graduated from the National Film School in Łódź, Poland. His video, film and art works have been shown in a variety of galleries and museums around the world, including: Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume, Paris; Whitechapel Art Gallery, London; Museo des Belles Artes, Buenos Aires; Image Forum, Tokyo; Tel-Aviv Museum of Art; The National Gallery, London; The Prado, Madrid; Art Institute of Chicago; The Louvre and at the Venice Biennale and The Museum of Modern Art in New York. Majewski about his film: “The Great Chief of the Navajo Nation ordered his people to play in my film. He said that this was a very good movie for them as he’d never seen an American production that would show the world from their perspective. Usually the Indians are portrayed from the white man’s point of view. I adopted a different way of storytelling, the logic that is found in their religion and mythology." Trailer: vimeo.com/357576802 - Info: https://variety.com/2019/film/festivals/camerimage-lech-majewski-valley-...
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