International Uranium Film Festival

Festival Program

5:30pm

Intro and Welcome / Tribute and Dedication to Klee Benally…

5:45pm - ATOMIC COVER-UP

USA, 2021, Director: Greg Mitchell, CoProducers: Greg Mitchell and Suzanne Mitchell, Documentary, 27 min.

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.

“What a great film and original concept. An absolutely crucial way to understanding all wars. Don’t be surprised if this documentary is a player at next year’s Oscars.” Rod Lurie, director of 2020 hit drama „The Outpost“ and other movies.

“One of 2021’s most important films….A devastating gut punch. It is a film of quiet and devastating power that will bend the knees of even those who think they know everything about the bombings.” Steve Kopian, Unseen Films

6:15pm - RICHLAND

USA, 2023, by Irene Lusztig, 93 minutes / https://richlandfilm.com

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, placemaking 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.

IRENE LUSZTIG is a feminist filmmaker, archival researcher, educator, and amateur seamstress. She works in a space of delicate mediation between people, their pasts, and the present-tense spaces and landscapes where unresolved histories bloom and erupt.

https://komsomolfilms.com/about/

7:50pm

Panel and Q & A with Irene Lusztig

8:15pm - BUILDING BOMBS (4 K RESTORATION)

USA, 2024, Directors and Producers; Mark Mori and Susan J. Robinson, 55 min, Documentary.

Academy Award nominated Building Bombs, in a new 4k film restoration, revisits the glory days of the atomic age, its legacy of nuclear weapons waste, and its troubling questions still unanswered. Insider stories and rare archival footage reveal the inner workings of one of the world’s largest nuclear bomb plants and its toll on the environment and human hearts. Of historical interest, the film sparked a movement by ordinary people and rock stars that changed U.S. national policy. With the abandonment of nuclear treaties by the world’s superpowers and call for the use of nuclear weapons, Building Bombs provides key insights and impetus to tackle these issues for audiences today. 

Mark Mori and Susan J. Robinson are Academy Award nominated documentary filmmakers. Mark is an Emmy Award winning television producer, President of Single Spark Pictures, and past Chair of the Documentary Committee of the Producers Guild of America. He has written and directed documentaries, reality series, and specials for broadcast and cable channels including Fox TV, HBO, Showtime, BBC, PBS, Frontline, Discovery, A&E, Bravo, MSNBC, National Geographic, and others. Susan has produced, directed, and written for broadcast, cable, and government media and is an expert in public health, risk communication, and community engagement. She specializes in long- and short-form environmental and social issue documentaries, in traditional and digital media forms.

Q & A with Mark Mori and Susan J. Robinson.