The International Uranium Film Festival has selected the first films for its 2020 festival circuit.
The 10. International Uranium Film Festival (IUFF) will take place from May 21st to 31st in Rio de Janeiro at the Museum of Modern Art cinema (MAM Rio) and from October 15 to 18, 2020 in Berlin. The selected documentaries, movies and animations from more than ten countries will be shown in Rio de Janeiro and / or in Berlin. Further films will be selected soon.
The first films selected are
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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.
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ATOMIC REFUGEE MOMS - Japan, 2018, Director Ayumi Nakagawa, Documentary, 65 min - There are many evacuees who had been driven into the poverty after the Japanese government cut off the housing subsidies for those who fled their house after the nuclear disaster in Fukushima in March 2017. Kazuko, who fled her house to Tokyo with her two primary school daughters, has to work over the weekend to pay the expensive rent in Tokyo. She is irregularly employed, which means that if she gets sick, it would affect her income. There are 34,000 evacuees from Fukushima and this is the documentary to address once again, what is the actual revitalization. We will feature three mothers, who voluntarily chose to flee from their home to Tokyo and its suburbs, struggle to settle down into a new life to seek what is best for their children’s future. We will introduce the stories of women who endeavor to survive in adverse circumstances, while the memory of the nuclear disaster is fading. How come they are particular about living in Tokyo while their husband remains in Fukushima? Why society has not reached out to those mothers who struggle to protect their children?
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BALENTES - THE BRAVE ONES - Italy/Australia, 2018, Director Lisa Camillo, Documentary, 84 min - When Sardinian-Australian Lisa Camillo, an anthropologist and film director, returns to Sardinia, an island of Italy, after an 15 year absence in Australia, to her horror she finds that large chunks of her homeland are devastated by mysterious bombs. On her journey she uncovers secret NATO bombing ranges that have been having devastating consequences on the local human and animal population, setting Lisa on a journey to expose the truth, join the islanders’ fight to reclaim their land and livelihoods and, in doing so, 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, testified by the recent archeological discoveries of the statues of the ‘Giants of Monte Prama’, ready to attack all invaders with courage and valour.”
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BRETAGNE RADIEUSE, France / Algeria, 2019, Director Larbi Benchiha, Documentary, 52 min - 250 mil minas de urânio foram exploradas na França de 1945 a 2001, resultando em 252 milhões de toneladas de rejeitos radioativos que permanecem no ecossistema. Entre 1955 e 1984, 42 minas de urânio foram exploradas na Bretanha. 26 delas estão no departamento de Morbihan. Entre 1955 e 1984, 42 minas de urânio foram exploradas na Bretanha. 26 deles estão concentrados no departamento de Morbihan. Essa extração de urânio produziu resíduos que permanecem prejudiciais à saúde até hoje. Técnicos independentes medem a radiação no quintal das pessoas e o resultado é mil, duas mil até três mil vezes mais radioativo que o tolerável. Em alguns lugares a ex-AREVA (empresa do governo francês de energia nuclear, atualmente COGEMA) fez a descontaminação e funcionou bem, em outros não funcionou e em alguns ela nunca apareceu para iniciar a descontaminação.
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CAMINHOS DO CÉSIO (Cesium Paths) - Brazil, 2019, Direção Diego Alberto Gomes Costa, 15 min, Animação, Português com legendas em Inglês - Animação mostra os principais caminhos contaminados pelo Césio 137, reconstituídos a partir do acervo de fotografias do acidente. Dois sucateiros encontram um aparelho de radioterapia abandonado. O modelo do aparelho é italiano, Cesapam F-3000, que utilizava uma fonte de Césio 137 em forma de cloreto. O material é radioativo e era utilizado para tratamento de câncer, porém, foi exposto ao meio ambiente causando males irreversíveis.
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CHILDREN OF STRATEGIC TRUST - United States, 2011, Director Stacy Libokmeto, Documentary, 26 min - When the United States asked to use the Marshall Islands as an atomic testing ground after WWII, they told the islanders it was “for the good of mankind.” In this exchange, the islands were inundated with an average of 1.6 Hiroshima bombs every day for 12 years. The American nuclear tests may have ended 70 years ago, but the effects of their legacy lingers in the land and the bodies of the Marshallese themselves.
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DAY OF THE WESTERN SUNRISE - United States, 2018, Director Keith Reimink, Animation Documentary, 75 min - 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 'explosion-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.
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GREEN WARRIORS - SOUTH AFRICA: TOXIC TOWNSHIPS / VERT DE RAGE - AFRIQUE DU SUD: TOXIC TOWNSHIPS - France, 2018, Director Martin Boudot, 54 min - 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...
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LA FUGA RADIOACTIVA (THE LEAK) - Spain, 2018, Director & Producer Eduardo Soto Pérez, documentary, 30 min - In 2010, the town of Villar de Cañas (40 km from Cuenca, Spain)was assigned the construction of a Centralized Temporary Storage Facility (CTS) thas was to house the high-level nuclear waste from seven active plants in Spain. The anti-CTS Platform brought together a large team of activists that neutralized the development of the works for 8 years, with peaceful protests, with information, with the law. In 2018 The Leak was filmed to stage a radioactive future that we don't want for Cuenca. Or for anyone. / O que aconteceria no caso de um depósito de rejeitos altamente radioativos sofrer um acidente? As diferentes personagens nos imergem no magma desta situação crítica e angustiante. Suas reações nos falam sobre os aspectos da energia nuclear que não são discutidos em fóruns públicos. Um thriller para refletir sobre a forma de energia que queremos que movimente o mundo. More Info: https://lafugaradiactiva.com/ - Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScTNOaF7N7E
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LEE DEWYZE "CASTLES" - Italy, 2019, Director Stefano Bertelli, Animation Music Video, 4 mim - In a park with a small lake there is a house on a tree. Here the memories come back to life, the shadows of children persist over time, but one day that place will be razed to the ground, building a nuclear power station that will exploit the water of that lake. Ionizing radiation into the water will produce a blue light (Cherenkov radiation) that will be projected into the universe in memory of that place.
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LITTLE BOY - Norway, 2018, Director Kristian Pedersen, Animation, 5 min - On August 6, 1945, there were two suns over Hiroshima. One was the dawn of a new day; the second was a nuclear bomb code-named "Little Boy". https://vimeo.com/375293693
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MARIE - United States, 2019, Director Kamen Sway, 14 min, French - Film about nuclear scientist Marie Curie and how she discovered radium. While in her moment, the female scientist Marie Curie flashes back over the trials and tribulations of her harsh but purposeful life and what it took to accomplish what she did. https://vimeo.com/381475755
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NUCLEAR FREE POWER TO THE PEOPLE / ATOMLOS DURCH DIE MACHT - Austria, 2019, Documentary, 73 min - Austria is the only country with a fully functional nuclear power plant which, due to a popular vote in 1978, never powered up. The film shows the civic movement which led to the everlasting ban of nuclear power in Austria. But the struggle continues, as Austria remains surrounded by nuclear power plants. Catastrophic events like Chernobyl or Fukushima have shown the vital interests of us as a people to fight this very undemocratic form of power production. The film also takes an outlook into alternatives and renewables, as climate change is becoming THE environmental and political challenge of the 21st century. Österreich ist das einzige Land weltweit, welches ein einsatzbereites Kernkraftwerk gebaut und – nach einer Volksabstimmung – nie in Betrieb genommen hat. Vor Zwentendorf gab es mit dem geplanten Kernkraftwerk in St. Pantaleon nähe Enns, mit dem Widerstand gegen Temelin, den Super-GAUs in Tschernobyl und Fukushima weitere Episoden der Nuklearenergie die in „Atomlos durch die Macht“ miteinander verwoben werden.
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PROTECTING COUNTRY - Australia, 2018, Director Alexander Hayes & Magali McDuffie, Documentary, 40 min - The Adnyamathanha people of the Flinders Ranges region of South Australia have fought for many years to protect their country from a nuclear waste dump facility planned by the Federal Government on their land. This is their story. "Protecting Country was produced with, for, and by South Australian Aboriginal people, and entirely self-funded to make sure their important message got out to the world - Adnyamathanha people do not want an international nuclear dump on their Country."
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PROTECTING OUR HOMELAND: NUHE NENE BOGHILNIH - Canada, 2017, Director Ashton Janvier, Documentary, 4 min - 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 explode this beautiful land. The findings of uranium is right under the lake. They are planning to drain the lake and destroy all the surrounding natural resources, which is completely devastating. 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. Not only does this mining exploration affect the promises of Treaty 10, it will also destroy the natural resources, harm wild life and ruin the land.
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SAM AND THE PLANT NEXT DOOR - Denmark/UK - 2019, Director Ömer Sami, Documentary, 23 min - Growing up in the shadows of Britain’s biggest new nuclear power plant, eleven-year-old Sam is worried about what it means for the world around him and must decide what kind of person he wants to be. Drifting between his daily life and dreams, the film explores themes of holding on and letting go, and growing up.
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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. Why on earth would the Federal govnt want to dump nuclear waste in the Flinders Ranges, on a floodplain, in a seismically active region, bordered by natural springs, in an iconic tourism destination?
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TAIYO NO FUTA / FUKUSHIMA: THE SEAL OF THE SUN (FUKUSHIMA – 5 DIAS DECISIVOS), Japan, 2016, Director Futoshi Sato, Production Tamiyoshi Tachibana Documentary, 90min - Drama that re-enacts the five days after the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011. Juxtaposes the activities of a newspaper reporter pursuing the truth behind the nuclear power plant accident, Japanese government officials, and people who live in Tokyo and Fukushima. Directed by Sato Futoshi of Indian Summer. Official selection at the 40th Montreal World Film Festival.
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. -
TESTEMUNHAS DA BARBÁRIE - Argentina/Brasil, 2019, Director Roberto Fernández, Documentary, 39 min - Em 6 de agosto de 1945, os EUA jogaram uma bomba atômica de urânio na cidade de Hiroshima. Os irmãos Mukai ficaram órfãos, só os pais estavam na casa quando caiu a bomba atômica. A Senhora Toshiho Masada relata pela primeira vez para seu filho Kenji a sua experiência com a bomba atômica.
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THE ATOMIC ADVENTURE /L'AVENTURE ATOMIQUE - France, 2019, Director Loic Barché, Doc Fiction, 25 min - Algeria, 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.
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THE BEGINNING OF THE END OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS - Spain, 2019, Director Álvaro Orús, Producer Tony Robinson, Documentary, 59 min, English - This 56 minute documentary film takes the viewer through a brief history of the bomb and the anti-nuclear activism that has pushed to eliminate them ever since their invention. It moves into a consideration of the humanitarian initiative that successfully challenged the dominant security narrative and the historic steps taken since 2010 to turn the treaty from a dream into a reality. 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. Extracts of fourteen interviews are woven into the story that will leave you feeling inspired!
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THE INVISIBLE FALLOUT / INVISIBLES RETOMBÉES - France, 2019, Director Cris Ubermann, Documentary, 45 min - Les catastrophes nucléaires comme celles de Tchernobyl et de Fukushima entrainent des rejets massifs de substances radioactives dans l’environnement et une contamination durable de vastes territoires. Elles s’accompagnent des mensonges sur la gravité des contaminations et sur l’ampleur des risques sanitaires. Les manipulations sont d’autant plus aisées que la radioactivité ne se voit pas. Compte tenu de son parc nucléaire vieillissant, la France est particulièrement concernée par les risques nucléaires. Produit par l’association CRIIRAD (Commission de Recherche et d’Information Indépendantes sur la RADioactivité) et réalisé par Cris Ubermann, le film « Invisibles Retombées », s’appuie sur les missions conduites par le laboratoire de la CRIIRAD au Japon pour rendre palpable cette radioactivité invisible et les conséquences pour les populations touchées par les retombées. Il rend compte des rencontres avec les habitants des zones contaminées et des mesures des niveaux de radiation effectuées
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THE SOVIET GARDEN - Moldova/Romania, 2019, Director Dragoș Turea, Documentary, 76 min - Dragosh, filmmaker from Moldova which was formerly part of the Soviet Empire, discovers a secret scientific experiment. Through nearly ten years of investigations, Dragosh unveils the secret plan to transform Moldova into the Soviet Garden by the application of atomic energy in local agriculture. Agricultural Chernobyl. A new documentary about the radioactive Soviet past of Moldova will be soon released “The Soviet Garden" https://www.moldova.org/en/a-new-documentary-about-the-soviet-past-of-mo...
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THIRST FOR JUSTICE - UK/USA, 2019, Director Leana Hosea, Documentary, 72 min - You might think America is free, but at its heart is a great injustice. Access to clean water is being segregated. Armed only with facts and their illnesses, extraordinary citizens take on industry and government, risking arrest to protect water. From Flint to the Navajo Nation, via Standing Rock, this is their story.
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TOTEM & ORE - Australia, 2019, Director John Mandelberg, Documentary, 97 min - A feature documentary about the efects of Nuclear weapons & testing. In Australia, the tragedy of uranium exploration, mining and British atomic testing in 1950’s Aboriginal Australia. Starting at the Hiroshima bomb and ending at the nuclear meltdown in Fukushima. The historic tragedies and fear told by atomic bomb witnesses, activists, filmmakers, artists, actors, writers composers, doctors, professors....Aboriginal Actress, Ursula Yovich reflects on her visit to Hiroshima, her appeal that “No place in the world for Nuclear weapons!”
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VALLEY OF THE GODS - Poland/Italy/Luxemburg/USA, 2019, Director Lech Majewski, Fiction, 126 min - 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.
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VOM SINN DES GANZEN, Germany, 2020, Director Claus Biegert, Production Biegertfilm, Documentary 103 min - Hans-Peter Dürr, von Werner Heissenberg zu seinem Nachfolger am Max Planck-Institut bestimmt, bewegte sich sein ganzes Leben zwischen zwei Polen: Edward Teller und Josef Rotblat. Teller und Rotblat gehörten beide zum Manhattan Project. Als bekannt wurde, dass Hitler die Atombombe nicht baut, stieg Rotblat sofort aus, erhielt später den Friedensnobelpreis, Teller wurde zum "Vater der Wasserstoffbombe". Der Film zeigt Dürr in diesem Spannungsverhältnis zwischen beiden Männern: Wir erleben Dürr im Streit mit Teller im Fernsehstudio und im Einklang mit Rotblat in dessen Haus in London. Der Film endet mit dem Potsdamer Manifest, das 50. Jahre nach dem Manifest von Albert Einstein und Bertram Russel gegen die Atombombe, ein neues Bewustsein und ein Ende des Krieges gegen die Natur fordert. Initiator: Hans-Peter Dürr. Film mit Mit Franz Alt, Angelika Claussen, Daniel Dahm, Giselle Full, Tiokasin Ghosthorse, Hartmut Grassl, Rudolf zur Lippe, John D. Liu, Heinrich Saller, Erhard Seiller, Andreas Weber, Konstantin Wecker, Ernst-Ulrich von Weizsäcker, ...
In addition to Rio and Berlin, this year we will also organize an Uranium Film Festival in Portugal in Ferrel, the declared "Capital of the Fight against Nuclear Energy." The Ferrel Uranium Film Festival will take place March 13th - 14th, 2020. And as in the years before a one day Uranium Film Festival will take place in Germany, Düsseldorf, March 7th, 2 pm in the Cinema Bambi-Kino.
The Ferrel Uranium Film Festival program download here.
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