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(Kevin Rafferty, Jayne Loader & Pierce Rafferty, US, 1982, 88 min, in English)

Armageddon has never been so darkly funny as in this documentary cult classic. This 1982 cine-collage juxtaposes Cold War history, propaganda, music and culture, seamlessly crafted from government-produced educational and training films, newsreels and advertisements. Taken together, these sources cheerily instruct the public on how to live in the Atomic Age, how to survive a nuclear attack (!) … and how to fight and win a nuclear war. As a U.S. Army training film advises, “Viewed from a safe distance, the atomic bomb is one of the most beautiful sights ever seen by man.”

Gloriously restored in sparkling 4K by IndieCollect, The Atomic Cafe is an absurdist blast from the past that would be laughable if it weren’t so mortally, perpetually relevant.

Synopsis and stills courtesy of Kino Lorber. Trailer >

“Never feels too distant, despite the years, perhaps because both careless stewardship of the bomb and surreal official propaganda seem to be making a comeback.” – Michael Agresta, Texas Observer

“An artfully assembled collage of official insanity.” – David Ansen, Newsweek

(Jesse Andrewartha, 2022, 69 min, in English)

** This screening is preceded by an event in memory of Navajo artist and activist Klee Benally, who is among those interviewed in Transmutations **

Transmutations: Visualizing Matter | Materializing Vision 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.

Trailer >

(Irene Lusztig, US, 2023, 93 min, in English)

** Film screening will be preceded by a panel led by Hanford Challenge – a nonprofit dedicated to facilitating safe and impactful outcomes throughout the cleanup effort at the Hanford Nuclear Site – and followed by a Q&A with the film team **

Built by the US government to house the Hanford nuclear site workers who manufactured weapons-grade plutonium for the Manhattan Project, Richland, Washington is proud of its heritage as a nuclear company town and proud of the atomic bomb it helped create. Richland offers a prismatic, place-making portrait of a community staking its identity and future on its nuclear origin story, presenting a timely examination of the habits of thought that normalize the extraordinary violence of the past. Moving between archival past and observational present, and across encounters with nuclear workers, community members, archeologists, local tribes, and a Japanese granddaughter of atomic bomb survivors, the film blooms into an expansive and lyrical meditation on home, safety, whiteness, land, and deep time.

Images courtesy of director Irene Lusztig / Director of Photography Helki Frantzen. Film trailer >

“…with curiosity and care, Richland peers into the heart of a small town, acknowledges the joys, and brings the pain and loss and broken promises into the light.” – The Hollywood Reporter

“…a thought-provoking and important documentary that is unafraid to lay bare how people embrace destruction if there is a place for them inside it.” – The Wrap

Atomic Bamboozle: The False Promise of a Nuclear Renaissance
(Jan Haaken, US, 2023, 46 min, in English)

As political pressure mounts in the US to meet net zero carbon goals, the nuclear power industry makes its case for a nuclear “renaissance.” Atomic Bamboozle: The False Promise of a Nuclear Renaissance – a new doc by Necessity: Oil, Water & Climate Resistance director Jan Haaken – follows anti-nuclear activists, tribal leaders, scientists and attorneys as they campaign to shut down the Trojan Nuclear Power plant in Oregon and extend what they learn into a new struggle to stop small modular reactors (SMRs) from being built in the Pacific Northwest.

Trailer >

“Atomic Bamboozle is captivating and revelatory, thoroughly debunking any notion that nuclear energy should play a role in solving the climate crisis. The film also offers a fascinating look at the history and psychology of nuclear propaganda and how the industry and its backers have promoted its many false claims.” – Joshua Frank, author of Atomic Days: The Untold Story of the Most Toxic Place in America and managing editor of CounterPunch

(Helen Young, US, 2018, 87 min, in English)

Peace activists, including elderly Catholic nuns and priests, challenge the security and legality of America’s nuclear weapons when they gain entry to two top secret facilities: the “Fort Knox” of uranium in Tennessee and a U.S. Navy Trident nuclear submarine base near Seattle. The film follows the federal criminal cases against the activists who are driven by their deep conviction that nuclear weapons are immoral. Through their dramatic, non- violent protests, the activists seek to raise public consciousness on the existential threat posed by nuclear weapons to humanity. The film also follows efforts at the United Nations to negotiate the new Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

All photos courtesy Helen Young Productions. Trailer >

Short: Making Waves: The Rebirth of the Golden Rule
(James A. Knight, US, 2018, 25 min, in English)

This 25-minute documentary covers the history of the Golden Rule, a historic anti-nuclear peace boat, from her first voyage in 1958 through restoration from 2010 to 2015 and her current voyages. The filmmaker, James “Seamus” Knight of Caneyhead Productions produced the film during the San Diego Fleet Week protest on October 14, 2017 in conjunction with Veterans For Peace, San Diego chapter. vfpgoldenruleproject.org/making-waves

Trailer >

Feature: Burial
(Emilija Škarnulytė, Lithuania & Norway, 2022, 60 min, in English & Lithuanian with English subtitles)

A python slithers and curls over the abandoned control room of “Chernobyl’s Big Sister” — the decommissioned Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant in Lithuania — interpreting the plant’s radioactive core as an unleashed monster, one that will slither through time for millions of years. From Etruscan ruins and sunken cities to the most modern of underground repositories, artist and director Emilija Škarnulytė examines different ways in which humanity has attempted to bury the immortal. Burial is a gentle meditation on nuclear waste that examines burial traditions, and material and ritual heredity as it traces fresh and old scars that have been left on our geographical and cultural landscapes.

Trailer >