URANIUM FILM FESTIVAL MARATHON ACROSS THE USA
Of the Sense of the Whole: The Network of Physicist Hans-Peter Dürr (VOM SINN DES GANZEN)
Germany, 2020, Director Claus Biegert, Production Biegertfilm, Music by Zoro Babel, Documentary, 103 min, German / English
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. TRAILER
USA, 2023, Directed by Mark Shapiro and Douglas Brian Miller. Executive Producers Matthew Modine and Adam Rackoff.
Written by Warren Etheredge and Mark Shapiro. Featuring Martin Sheen, Claudia Peterson, Ian Zabarte, Patrick Wayne, Mary Dickson,
Lewis Black, Joseph Musso and Michael Douglas. Documentary, 95 minutes, English
Hiroshima. Nagasaki. Mercury, Nevada? The latter was the site for the testing of 928 large-scale nuclear weapons from 1951 to 1992. The Nevada Test Site is located in Mercury, 65 miles from Las Vegas. Over the 41 years of testing at the Nevada Test Site, 100 atomic bombs were detonated above ground from airplanes, towers, cannons and balloons; 828 tests were conducted underground. Downwind of the test site in the 1950s, a number of Hollywood blockbusters were filmed, including the Howard Hughes epic „The Conqueror“ with John Wayne and Susan Hayward. Although „The Conqueror“ location site, in St. George, Utah, was more than 100 miles away, the radiation levels there were so high that when Wayne tested them with a Geiger counter he thought the equipment was broken. The film „Downwind“ tells the stories of people harmed by the radioactive fallout from the Nevada Test Site. Half the cast and crew involved with „The Conqueror“, shot in 1954 allegedly died of causes connected to the toxic fallout. They were the most high-profile victims of the atomic testing at the Nevada Test Site, which contaminated land, water and people. Martin Sheen narrates this harrowing exposé of the United States' disregard for everyone living downwind. www.backlotdocs.com
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.
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. 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 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. Indians either circle their opponents, make strange sounds and shoot arrows, or are tortured and treated unfairly. I adopted a different way of storytelling, the logic that is found in their religion and mythology."
With the presence of director Lech Majewski (not yet confirmed).
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Short Documentary, 30 minutes, English
How Far From Ground Zero shows the Nuclear Testing prgrams across the world and the impact on the indigenous communities, the veterans who took part and the civillians. This documentary is one of the most powerful ever produced to raise awareness of the testing program. About LABRATS: Millions were exposed to fallout from the atomic bomb tests and families suffer today from illness and deformities caused by the tests. We aim to provide information relating to the tests and expose the injustice of the Veterans who took part in the testing program. The participants of the testing program were lab rats or guinea pigs. Used in experiments to test the effects of Nuclear warfare, with no regard for the indigenous people, their lands or their lives. Veterans, indigenous people, scientists, civilians have all died as a consequence of the tests, yet their stories remain unheard by the general population of the world. LABRATS International gives these people a voice and allows their stories to be told. www.labrats.international
Written by Warren Etheredge and Mark Shapiro. Featuring Martin Sheen, Claudia Peterson, Ian Zabarte, Patrick Wayne, Mary Dickson,
Lewis Black, Joseph Musso and Michael Douglas. Documentary, 95 minutes, English
Hiroshima. Nagasaki. Mercury, Nevada? The latter was the site for the testing of 928 large-scale nuclear weapons from 1951 to 1992. The Nevada Test Site is located in Mercury, 65 miles from Las Vegas. Over the 41 years of testing at the Nevada Test Site, 100 atomic bombs were detonated above ground from airplanes, towers, cannons and balloons; 828 tests were conducted underground. Downwind of the test site in the 1950s, a number of Hollywood blockbusters were filmed, including the Howard Hughes epic „The Conqueror“ with John Wayne and Susan Hayward. Although „The Conqueror“ location site, in St. George, Utah, was more than 100 miles away, the radiation levels there were so high that when Wayne tested them with a Geiger counter he thought the equipment was broken. The film „Downwind“ tells the stories of people harmed by the radioactive fallout from the Nevada Test Site. Half the cast and crew involved with „The Conqueror“, shot in 1954 allegedly died of causes connected to the toxic fallout. They were the most high-profile victims of the atomic testing at the Nevada Test Site, which contaminated land, water and people. Martin Sheen narrates this harrowing exposé of the United States' disregard for everyone living downwind. www.backlotdocs.com
Documentary, 77 min. English
A feature documentary about the 1979 Three Mile Island meltdown--the worst commercial nuclear accident in U.S. history. RADIOACTIVE covers the never-before-told stories of four intrepid homemakers, two lawyers who took the local community's case all the way to the Supreme Court, and a young female journalist who was caught in the radioactive crossfire. The film features activist and actor Jane Fonda - whose film, CHINA SYNDROME (a fictional account of a nuclear meltdown), opened 12 days before the real disaster in Pennsylvania. RADIOACTIVE also breaks the story of a radical new health study (in process) that may finally expose the truth of the meltdown. For over forty years, the nuclear industry has done all in their power to cover up their criminal actions, claiming, as they always do, "No one was harmed and nothing significant happened at Three Mile Island." In this thrilling feminist documentary, indomitable women fight back against the nuclear industry Goliath to expose one of the worst cover-ups in U.S. history. www.radioactivethefilm.com
Canada, 2021, Director: Colin Scheyen, Producer: Ann Shin and Hannah Donegan,
Documentary, English 25 min.
Eugene Bourgeois had no concerns about nuclear energy when he built his farm next door to the world's largest nuclear facility in 1974. Over that time, he and his wife Ann ran a successful wool business and taught generations of people around the world the art of knitting. They really believed they had found paradise. However, over the next few decades, Eugene, his family, and his sheep flock were frequently exposed to hydrogen sulfide, a deadly nerve gas from the nuclear plant, which caused hundreds of his sheep to be blinded, born deformed, or killed. The industry has denied any wrong doing, but Eugene has always known the truth and dedicated the rest of his life to pushing his nuclear neighbour for greater transparency and accountability. Trailer: https://vimeo.com/609829443
Canada, 2018, Director and Producer: Jesse Andrewartha, Documentary, English, 15 min.
Photography & Radiation is a personal journey by visual artist Jesse Andrewartha, who explores the history of the autoradiogram as he creates a new body of work, a series of uranium autoradiograms for the upcoming exhibition “Transmutations: Visualizing Matter | Materializing Vision”. Trailer: https://vimeo.com/253012170
USA/Canada, 2021, Director Jesse Andrewartha, Producer: Marcos Fajardo, Documentary, English with Portuguese subtitles. 70 min.
Transmutations is a multi-year project that explores the history, legacy and radioactivity of uranium mining during the Cold War in Canada and the US. Captured over the course of three years using 35mm motion picture film and digital technologies, the film reveals the mineral and the people whose lives have been impacted by uranium: ex-miners that toiled decades underground, Indigenous leaders and activists leading the charge to clean up the mines and the places that shifted the balance of power on a global scale. Project website https://www.transmutationsproject.com
USA, 2023, Directed by Mark Shapiro and Douglas Brian Miller. Executive Producers Matthew Modine and Adam Rackoff.
Written by Warren Etheredge and Mark Shapiro. Featuring Martin Sheen, Claudia Peterson, Ian Zabarte, Patrick Wayne, Mary Dickson,
Lewis Black, Joseph Musso and Michael Douglas. Documentary, 95 minutes, English
Hiroshima. Nagasaki. Mercury, Nevada? The latter was the site for the testing of 928 large-scale nuclear weapons from 1951 to 1992. The Nevada Test Site is located in Mercury, 65 miles from Las Vegas. Over the 41 years of testing at the Nevada Test Site, 100 atomic bombs were detonated above ground from airplanes, towers, cannons and balloons; 828 tests were conducted underground. Downwind of the test site in the 1950s, a number of Hollywood blockbusters were filmed, including the Howard Hughes epic „The Conqueror“ with John Wayne and Susan Hayward. Although „The Conqueror“ location site, in St. George, Utah, was more than 100 miles away, the radiation levels there were so high that when Wayne tested them with a Geiger counter he thought the equipment was broken. The film „Downwind“ tells the stories of people harmed by the radioactive fallout from the Nevada Test Site. Half the cast and crew involved with „The Conqueror“, shot in 1954 allegedly died of causes connected to the toxic fallout. They were the most high-profile victims of the atomic testing at the Nevada Test Site, which contaminated land, water and people. Martin Sheen narrates this harrowing exposé of the United States' disregard for everyone living downwind. www.backlotdocs.com
USA, 2021, Director: Greg Mitchell, Co-Producers: Greg Mitchell and Suzanne Mitchell, Documentary, 52 min, English
The widely-acclaimed 2021 film Atomic Cover-up is the first documentary to explore the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 from the unique perspective, words and startling images of the brave cameramen and directors who risked their lives filming in the irradiated aftermath. It reveals how this historic footage, created by a Japanese newsreel crew and then an elite U.S. Army team (who shot the only color reels), was seized, classified top secret, and then buried by American officials for decades to hide the full human costs of the bombings as a dangerous nuclear arms race raged. All the while, the producers of the footage made heroic efforts to find and expose their shocking film, to reveal truths of the atomic bombings that might halt nuclear proliferation. Atomic Cover-up represents, at least in part, the film they were not allowed to make, as well as a tribute to documentarians everywhere.
SEA GYPSIES: THE PLUTONIUM DOME
2021, USA/Marshall Islands, Director Nico Edwards, English with Portuguese subtitles, 35 min.
I︎︎︎︎︎︎︎n the middle of the pacific ocean, the sailing ship Infinity and her ragtag crew stumble upon one of the most dangerous islands on earth. Birthplace of the hydrogen bomb, this tiny atoll absorbed the nuclearequivalent of 1.5 Hiroshima bombs a day for 12 years. That legacy waits near the beach, in a giant unguarded crumbling concrete dome. Atomic Test Clean-up Veteran Paul Griego about the film: „I feel it is as great film and so have the other atomic cleanup personnel I have spoken to.“
Trailer: https:// www.seagypsies.com/the-plutonium-dome
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.
6:30 - 9:00 pm
PLAYING WITH URANIUM
Canada, 2020, Director: Daniel Hackborn, Producer: Patrick Borgers, Cinematography by Hannah Joosse, Documentary, English, 10 min.
Playing With Uranium looks at the legacy of the Uranium mines that existed in and around Elliot Lake throughout the later half of the 20th century. The mining executives and shareholders made millions of dollars, while the people who call the land of Elliot Lake home, and the Anishinaabe of Serpent River, are left to deal with the millions of tonnes of tailings that have been left scattered throughout the boreal forest in man-made lakes and dugouts. Trailer: https://www.hannahjoosse.com/documentary/uranium
USA, 2017, Director Brittany Prater, documentary, 83 min, English
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. The film 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. TRAILER
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USA, 2023, Directed by Mark Shapiro and Douglas Brian Miller. Executive Producers Matthew Modine and Adam Rackoff.
Written by Warren Etheredge and Mark Shapiro. Featuring Martin Sheen, Claudia Peterson, Ian Zabarte, Patrick Wayne, Mary Dickson,
Lewis Black, Joseph Musso and Michael Douglas. Documentary, 95 minutes, English
Hiroshima. Nagasaki. Mercury, Nevada? The latter was the site for the testing of 928 large-scale nuclear weapons from 1951 to 1992. The Nevada Test Site is located in Mercury, 65 miles from Las Vegas. Over the 41 years of testing at the Nevada Test Site, 100 atomic bombs were detonated above ground from airplanes, towers, cannons and balloons; 828 tests were conducted underground. Downwind of the test site in the 1950s, a number of Hollywood blockbusters were filmed, including the Howard Hughes epic „The Conqueror“ with John Wayne and Susan Hayward. Although „The Conqueror“ location site, in St. George, Utah, was more than 100 miles away, the radiation levels there were so high that when Wayne tested them with a Geiger counter he thought the equipment was broken. The film „Downwind“ tells the stories of people harmed by the radioactive fallout from the Nevada Test Site. Half the cast and crew involved with „The Conqueror“, shot in 1954 allegedly died of causes connected to the toxic fallout. They were the most high-profile victims of the atomic testing at the Nevada Test Site, which contaminated land, water and people. Martin Sheen narrates this harrowing exposé of the United States' disregard for everyone living downwind. www.backlotdocs.com
NORWALK
SANTA BARBARA - April 12
IRVINE - APRIL 17
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THE MAN WHO SAVED THE WORLD
Denmark, 2014, Director Peter Anthony, Producer Jakob Staberg, Statement Film, Co-production: WG Film, Doc-Fiction with Kevin Costner, Robert De Niro, Matt Damon, Stanislav Petrov, Sergey Shnyryov, u.a., 105 min. Russian, English with Portuguese subtitles.
1983. The Cold War is seconds from exploding. The world holds its breath as the superpowers USA and Russia are arming themselves against each other with thousands of nuclear missiles. On the 26th of September, Russian radars intercept five nuclear missiles on their way to Russia. Stanislav Petrov is commander-in-chief. The decision that would start World War III rests on his shoulders. Should Russia fire nuclear missiles at the United States in defence? 'The Man Who Saved the World' is an epic Cold War thriller that sends shivers down your spine, while also being a gripping story about the man who actually saved the world, and his struggle to get his life back on track before it is too late. TRAILER
The Plan(?)
USA, 2014, 6 min, Documentary, Director: Susan Rubin, Andrea Garbarini, Producer: Susan Rubin and Andrea Garbarini, English, Portuguese subtitles https://vimeo.com/96615872
What happens, if a similar accident like "Fukushima" happens in New York? A short film about the absurdity of the current evacuation plan for the aging Indian Point nuclear power plant of New York City: How to evacuate about 10 million people?
THE MAN WHO SAVED THE WORLD
Denmark, 2014, Director Peter Anthony, Producer Jakob Staberg, Statement Film, Co-production: WG Film, Doc-Fiction with Kevin Costner, Robert De Niro, Matt Damon, Stanislav Petrov, Sergey Shnyryov, u.a., 105 min. Russian, English with Portuguese subtitles.
1983. The Cold War is seconds from exploding. The world holds its breath as the superpowers USA and Russia are arming themselves against each other with thousands of nuclear missiles. On the 26th of September, Russian radars intercept five nuclear missiles on their way to Russia. Stanislav Petrov is commander-in-chief. The decision that would start World War III rests on his shoulders. Should Russia fire nuclear missiles at the United States in defence? 'The Man Who Saved the World' is an epic Cold War thriller that sends shivers down your spine, while also being a gripping story about the man who actually saved the world, and his struggle to get his life back on track before it is too late. TRAILER
Friday April 12
6:30 - 9:00 pm
DARKROOM (QUARTO ESCURO)
Germany, 2011, Animation. Director and Producer Anna Luisa Schmid, No Dialogue. 2 min - An answer to the nuclear-power-campaign in Germany 2011. We are watching a man on his morning routine who doesn’t know what he affects at the other side of the planet. https://vimeo.com/81749731
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.
SAM AND THE PLANT NEXT DOORDenmark/UK - 2019, Director Ömer Sami, Documentary, 23 min, English
Growing up in the shadows of Britain’s biggest new nuclear power plant, Hinkley Point C, 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. Sam believes the only way is to go a private school – but his parents can’t afford the offer. As a last resort, they turn to the power company for funding, forcing Sam to decide. This Guardian documentary meets a boy who must choose between opposing Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant and benefiting from its educational bursary. Hinkley Point, on the Somerset coast, is the biggest building site in Europe and the most expensive nuclear power station in the world. Ömer Sami is a young documentary filmmaker of British-Trinidadian, Turkish-Irish decent. He tells character-led stories, often through a child’s eyes and mind. Alongside filmmaking, he works as a screener for the Sundance Documentary Film Program and a programming consultant for Concordia Studio’s Artists in Residence fellowship program. He is currently studying Documentary Directing at The National Film School of Denmark in Copenhagen. His film Sam and the Plant Next Door (The Guardian) received the Ekko Shortlist Award for Best Documentary.
TOTEM & ORE
2019, Australia, Director John Mandelberg, Documentary, 97 min, English
A feature documentary about the effects 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!” John Mandelberg is an Australian Filmmaker and academic who lives today in New Zealand. He was working in the Australian Film & television Industry for 30 years. He writes about his film: „Since I was a child I have always been interested in and feared the Nuclear story: the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Nagasaki and nuclear testing by Major powers in the West and East on indigenous lands all over the globe. This includes the indiscriminate 1950's British nuclear testing on Aboriginal lands that effected so many communities.“
