The International Uranium Film Festival has selected the first films for its 13th edtion at Rio de Janeiro's famous Modern Art Museum (MAM Rio) Cinematheque, May 25 to June 1, 2024.

ATOMIC GODS: Creation Myths of the Bomb

A film by Adam Jonas Horowitz, USA, 2023, 54 minutes, pseudo-documentary, English

ATOMIC GODS is a black-comedy, pseudo-documentary film that reveals for the first time the secret, unknown (and perhaps even forbidden), 'Creation Myths of the Bomb'. It centers on the story of J. Robert Oppenheimer and the birth of the Atomic Bomb; and also features God (in a special guest appearance), Adam and Eve, Prometheus, King Kong, Charleton Heston, and Moby Dick. The film also reveals previously unknown footage of the 'Atomic Gods' themselves in a daring prison escape from Alcatraz. The film navigates a dream world between Fact and Myth; combining the Real, with the Unreal, the Surreal, and the Hyperreal; along with new cartoons, and extremely rare, previously unseen, "Actual Footage." A biting satire that is at once both historical and futuristic, this dark and hilarious story serves as a post-nuclear fairy tale.

Demon Mineral

USA, 2022, Director: Hadley Austin, Producer: Nevo Shinaar. Cinematographer: Yoni Goldstein, Impact Producer: Emma Robbins, Co-Writer: Tommy Rock, Documentary, 1 hour 35 minutes, English, Navajo

DEMON MINERAL is a new documentary about life in the radioactive desert of the Navajo Reservation in the American Southwest. Spanning a landscape perforated by uranium mines, the film follows a group of indigenous scientists, engineers, and activists as they work to secure a vital living space in the Navajo Nation. It is an anti-Western exploring the legacy of uranium mining in Diné Bikeyah, the sacred homelands of the Navajo. There, 523 unremediated mines scatter across an area the size of West Virginia. Water, air, traditions, and livelihoods have been threatened by contamination for the last four generations. Some Diné adhere to the tenets in the following origin story: there is a demon who lives in the earth. He is content enough there, and will bother no-one unless disturbed, having been laid there by a formidable warrior. Uranium, for millions of years to come, is perhaps this demon made real.

Hardangerfolk

United Kingdom 2023, Director Gregor Douglas Sinclair, Producer: Matthew Smith, Key Cast: Øivind Tangstad, Documentary, Short, 20 minutes, Language: English, Norwegian

Øivind Tangstad grew up on the slopes of the Hardangervidda, Europe's highest plateau and one of its greatest wildernesses. He took inspiration from one of the most thrilling and heroic adventure stories of the modern era, where in the winter of early 1943, 12 Norwegian Resistance members skied over 600km across the plateau to prevent the creation of an atomic bomb. To mark the 80th anniversary of this astounding tale, which has become folklore in Norway, Øivind is leading an international expeditionary team to retrace their footsteps, from the assault on the Rjukan valley, across Europe’s wildest plateau, and over the Swedish border hundreds of kilometres away. ‘Hardangerfolk’ is a documentary which shows how, at a time when war and oppression are once again gripping Europe, this inspirational story is more relevant than it has ever been.

Honeymoon in Oak Ridge

USA, 2023, Director and Producer: Joe Tripician, Documentary, 19 minutes 27 seconds, English

A filmmaker journeys with his parents to the secret city in East Tennessee where they were employed to help create the first atomic bombs - with rarely seen istorical footage. Throughout the war, Oak Ridge was protected by guarded gates, and workers at the plants were sworn to secrecy. Few people in town were aware that the military was pursuing an atomic bomb onsite; they only knew information relevant to their specific job duties. Under orders from General Groves, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers purchased 59,000 acres of land along the Clinch River. Originally known as Site X or Clinton Engineer Works, the nuclear site was eventually renamed Oak Ridge. With its promise of jobs, the new city drew in tens of thousands of families, becoming the fifth-largest city in Tennessee. Director Joe Tripician is an Emmy award-winning Producer/Writer/Director, a Playwright, Performer, and a Published Author.

In Search of Resolution

USA, 2023, Director/Producer: Robert E. Frye, Composer: Hayes Greenfield, Documentary, English, 

On the 16th of July 1945 at 5:26 am, in southern New Mexico, the test explosion of “Trinity”, marked the beginning of the Nuclear Age, followed just three weeks later by two atomic bombs “Little Boy” and “Fat Man” dropped over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing over 200,000 human beings, leaving a scar on humanity. Since the very beginning of the nuclear age, some of the scientists who created the nuclear bomb, called for its abolition. William Johnston, a Catholic priest in Japan, summed up what is the ongoing reality “In short, a titanic struggle is raging in the collective unconscious of humanity”. The goal of this documentary is to tell that story in narrative form, with the voices of those involved in dealing with this ongoing struggle. It is not just about the continuing presence of the nuclear weapon held in the arsenals of nine nations, which now includes the modernization of these powerful tools of war, making the weapons even more dangerous.

Nuked

Canada, 2023, Director, writer and producer: Andrew Nisker, Documentary, Feature, 1 hour 30 minutes, English

The US detonated 67 nuclear weapons over the Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands during the Cold War, the consequences of which still reverberate down four generations to today. "NUKED," is a timely new feature documentary focussing on the human victims of the Cold War Era nuclear arms race, tracing the displaced Bikinian's ongoing struggle for justice and survival even as climate change poses a new existential threat. 

Using carefully restored archival footage to resurrect contemporaneous islanders’ voices and juxtaposing these with the full, awesome fury of the nuclear detonations, NUKED starkly contrasts the official record with the lived experience of the Bikinians themselves, serving as an important counterpoint to this summer’s Oppenheimer.

SOS - The San Onofre Syndrome: Nuclear Power's Legacy

USA, 2023, Directed by James Heddle, Mary Beth Brangan and Morgan Peterson, and produced by Mary Beth Brangan, production: EON - The Ecological Options Network, 1 hour 40 minutes, documentary, english

A timely and urgent story with global implications. Filmed over 12 years, the documentary dramatically chronicles how Southern California residents came together to force the shutdown of an aging nuclear power plant only to be confronted by an alarming reality: tons of nuclear waste left near a popular beach, only 100 feet from the rising sea, that — with radioactivity lasting millions of years—menaces present and future generations. It features nuclear experts Donna Gilmore, Dan Hirsch, Gordon Edwards, as well as activists Karen Hadden, Rose Gardner, Torgen Johnson and Gary and Laurie Headrick. The film portrays San Onofre as a microcosm of this national problem - the mismanagement of lethal radioactive waste. This is a syndrome shared by all 55 nuclear reactor sites across the United States. SOS spotlights the essential role citizens must play to ensure public safety is the top priority. Told largely from the perspective of five main characters, the film shows how they mobilize their communities as they become experts on the issues and tactically wiser in the face of adversity. SOS is a critical warning that America's 55 nuclear power plants, each with their own tons of intensely radioactive waste lasting millennia — in inadequate temporary containers with no plans to repair them — are putting their local communities and national security at grave risk.

The Land of Magic

India, 2023, Director SATISH MUNDA, Producer, RAJAT AGRAWAL, Key Cast, HARISH KHANNA, CHANDA MEHRA, Short fiction, 19 minutes 32 seconds, Hindi, English subtitles

In 1998, the town of Jadugoda also called the Land of Magic, is at India’s forefront for mining Uranium. The economic boost in India is catalyzing the nation’s dream to establish its name in the list of the world’s most powerful nuclear forces. However, due to this, Jadugoda is being continuously poisoned by the uranium mining dump. Aloof from the desire for nuclear power and geo-political warfare, the innocent and poor tribals in the town who aim to live a simple livelihood are suffering from these radiations daily. Men are getting scarred and crippled while women are giving birth to stillborn and disabled children. Many women are suffering from infertility too. As a result of this, families from nearby towns and villages are not willing to get their kids married to any person in this village, especially that to women. In these unfortunate times, Dama, a 45-year-old farmer, who resides in the indigenous village Dungridih dreams of getting his only daughter, Rupni married. He is elated that he has received a marriage proposal from a prosperous family for his daughter but in the 24 hours prior to their visit to his house, his anxiousness increases with every passing minute as his biggest concern is to keep the condition of the village hidden from them.

Walkatjurra : Our actions will never stop

Chile, 2023, Director: Francisca Silva Bravo, Co-Director and Writer: Carole Risler, Producer: Alessandra Cristina, documentary, 1 hour 11 minutes, English, French, Spanish

It is the 70th anniversary of the first nuclear test in indigenous Australian territory and the aboriginal communities call on activists from all over the world to carry out a 200 km anti-nuclear walk through the desert. Among them, the directors of this documentary join to record this walk, which seeks to end the extraction of uranium, the mineral with which atomic bombs are produced. What attitude will we take as humanity in the face of the possibility of creation and destruction? Francisca Silva Bravo is an independent documentary maker from Chile.  "Walkatjurra: Our actions will never stop", is a 2023 documentary co-directed by the French filmmaker Carole Risler. This was shot in some Australian aboriginal territories, where uranium is mined. Walkatjurra is an invitation from the directors to meditate on a more non-violent culture to protect life and its evolution.

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