Berlin

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Creators Smriti Keshari and Eric Schlosser will take the international premiere of their film on the paradoxes of nuclear deterrence to Berlin

The bomb is a 55-minute experimental multimedia film that immerses the audience in the strange, compelling, and unsettling reality of nuclear weapons. The Berlin screening will feature a live performance of the score by electronica band The Acid.

the bomb exists at the intersection of art, politics, and technology and places the viewer in the middle of the story of nuclear weapons - the most dangerous machines ever built - from the Trinity Test in 1945 to the current state of the nuclear threat in 2017. It explores the culture surrounding nuclear weapons, the fascination they inspire, and the perverse appeal they still exert. It conveys the impossibility of controlling this technology. Entertainment Weekly called the bomb a "stunning avant-garde approach to a plea for nuclear disarmament.”

The project’s creators Smriti Keshari (producer of 2014 Berlinale selection Food Chains) and Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation, Food Inc., Command and Control) assembled an exceptional and wide-ranging creative team for a truly innovative visual and audio approach to the project: Filmmaker and DOP Kevin Ford shares directing credits; the enthralling live score was composed and performed by The Acid; Stanley Donwood, the graphic designer famous especially for his work with Radiohead was responsible for art direction; and the staging of the live installation comes courtesy of United Visual Artists. 

CREATIVE TEAM

the bomb

Produced and Conceived by Smriti Keshari & Eric Schlosser

Film directed by Kevin Ford, Smriti Keshari & Eric Schlosser

Music by The Acid

Art Direction by Stanley Donwood

Animation by The Kingdom of Ludd 

Live Version Designed and Staged by United Visual Artists

Smriti Keshari is an Indian-American award-winning filmmaker, artist, and director. Her work explores under-represented perspectives and stories outside the mainstream, which seek to inspire social change. She has a roster of highly notable projects. Most recently Keshari was a producer of Food Chains, a documentary that premiered at the Berlin Film Festival and the Tribeca Film Festival in 2014. Narrated by Forest Whitaker and featuring commentary by Eva Longoria and Eric Schlosser, it examined the plight of migrant farm workers in the United States.

Eric Schlosser is a writer whose work has been published in dozens of countries, performed on stage, and adapted into films. His most recent book, Command and Control, tells the story of America's effort to prevent nuclear weapons from being stolen, sabotaged, or detonated by accident. It was a New York Times best seller and a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize in History. His two other books were also New York Times best sellers. Fast Food Nation helped start a revolution in how Americans think about what they eat. And Reefer Madness looked at the nation's thriving underground economy.  Schlosser was an executive producer of Richard Linklater’s film Fast Food Nation, Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood, the documentaries Food Chains and Hanna Ranch, as well as co-producer of the Oscar-nominated documentary Food, Inc.  A documentary based on Command and Control, co-written and co-produced by Schlosser, was recently shortlisted for an Oscar.

Kevin Ford is a writer and filmmaker who has directed independent feature films and documentaries. He began his career shooting rock bands like Jane’s Addiction and the Stone Temple Pilots. Ford co-directed Stone Barn Castle, a documentary starring the actor Adrien Brody, which premiered at SXSW in 2015. He conceived and directed a short film based on Eric Schlosser’s book, Command and Control, featuring the music of Radiohead. Ford has served as director of photography for commercial projects and documentary films including the political documentary, The Party’s Over, featuring Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Richard Linklater’s Inning by Inning. His latest film, By the River, features Boyhood’s Ellar Coltrane.

The Acid came together from four separate worlds. They are globetrotting, Grammy-nominated DJ and producer Adam Freeland, spearhead of a music scene and label boss of Brighton's Marine Parade Records; Californian Steve Nalepa, whose time is divided between being a producer, composer and professor of music technology; Australian, Grammy nominated artist and producer RY X; and Berklee graduate, LA-based, artist Jens Kuross. The Acid’s debut album, Liminal, came out in 2014.

Stanley Donwood is one of the most celebrated graphic artists in Great Britain and a longtime campaigner against nuclear weapons. For the past twenty years, Donwood has been responsible for all of Radiohead’s artwork. His evocative and haunting images have helped to shape the identity of one of the world's greatest bands.

United Visual Artists is a London-based art practice that combines a wide range of disciplines in its work, including sculpture, installation, live performance, and architecture. Founded by Matthew Clark, Chris Bird, and Ash Nehru, UVA has been commissioned to create pieces for the Tate Modern, the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Royal Academy of Arts, the Serpentine Gallery, the Barbican Centre, the Creators Project, Opera North, and YCAM Tokyo.