Uranium Film Festival in Berlin 2020

The International Uranium Film Festival has selected 14 amazing documentaries and movies from 10 countries for its next edition in October in Berlin. The films show a broad spectrum of the atomic age and focus on nuclear tests in the Pacific and Algeria, the Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear disasters, uranium mining in the Navajo territory, a planned nuclear waste dump in Australia, Austria's anti-nuclear movement and the use of nuclear research to transform the agriculture in Moldova. 

"Unfortunately, because of the corona epidemic, we had to cancel and postpone our festival in Rio de Janeiro scheduled for May 21 - May 31, 2020," complains festival director Márcia Gomes de Oliveira. “But it looks hopeful for the Uranium Film Festival in Berlin, scheduled for October 15-18. Germany has eased its coronavirus lockdown restrictions, and we hope that the cinemas in Berlin will be able to open again soon may be already in September. ”

"Unfortunately, we had to cancel our 10th anniversary in Rio de Janeiro due to the coronavirus epidemic," complains festival director Márcia Gomes de Oliveira. “But it looks hopeful for our film festival planned for October 15-18 in Berlin. Germany has declining infections and the coronavirus lockdown has been relaxed. We can therefore hope that the cinemas in Berlin will reopen soon in September or even earlier. ”

This year, the festival will present two special highlights in the CineStar cinema in the Kulturbrauerei in Prenzlauer Berg: "About the Meaning of Everything"(link is external), the new documentary by German journalist, filmmaker and human rights activist Claus Biegert about physicist Hans-Peter Dürr, and movie "Valley of the Gods"(link is external) by Polish film director Lech Majewski with US movie star John Malkovich that was filmed in the Monument Valley of the Navajo Nation.

The Uranium Film Festival team hopes that the coronavirus epidemic will soon be overcome not only in Germany, but also worldwide, and that filmmakers from other countries can also be present at the Berlin film festival. Let's keep the fingers crossed. www.uraniumfilmfestival.org

The Selected Films & Preliminary program! 

Thursday, October 15th / 7.30pm - 8pm - Opening

FILM PROGRAM WITH SYNOPSIS

VOM SINN DES GANZEN (About the Meaning of Everything) - The Network of Physicist Hans-Peter Dürr (1929 - 2014) - Germany, 2020, Director Claus Biegert(link is external), Production Biegertfilm, Documentary, 103 min, German/English with English subtitles - 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:

The film offers previously un-known material about encounters of Dürr with Teller and Rotblat. A film with Franz Alt, Angelika Claussen, Daniel Dahm, Sue Dürr, Giselle Full, Tiokasin Ghosthorse, Hartmut Grassl, Isabelle Krötsch, Rudolf zur Lippe, John D. Liu, Josef Rotblat, Heinrich Saller, Erhard Seiller, Rupert Sheldrake, Edward Teller, Ulrich Warnke, Andreas Weber, Konstantin Wecker, Ernst-Ulrich von Weizsäcker. Claus Biegert is a journalist, author, film-maker, radio reporter and human rights activist, based in Munich, Germany. He published numerous books on Native Americans and environmental issues. For many years he had his own radio program at the Bavarian Public Radio. In 1979/80 he collaborated with visual artist Rainer Wittenborn and many Cree hunters in the multi-media exhibition “James Bay Project – A River Drowned by Water”, which traveled – under the patronage of the Goethe Institute – the world for almost ten years. Among his films are “The Secret and the Sacred – Two Worlds at Los Alamos”(2001), “Winona LaDuke – Thunderbird Woman”(2003), “Leonard Peltier: I am the Indian Voice”(2013) and “Exit 16 – Onondaga Nation Territory”(2014). Biegert is the initiator of the World Uranium Hearing(link is external), 1992 in Salzburg, Austria, and the co-founder of the international Nuclear-Free Future Award(link is external), which started in 1998. https://www.biegert-film.de(link is external)

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.  Kim Mavromatis(link is external) is Multi-Award-Winning Mixed Media Creator, Filmmaker, Cinematographer, Editor, Visual Artist and he is living in South Australia near the proposed nuclear waste dump sites. He says about his film: "Why on earth does the Australian Federal government want to dump nuclear waste in the Flinders Ranges, on a floodplain, in a seismically active region, bordered by natural springs, in one of Australia’s most iconic tourism destinations, or on Eyre Peninsula farmland near Kimba, in South Australia? I live along the transport route, near the 3 proposed dump sites in the Flinders Ranges and Kimba on Eyre Peninsula farmland, in South Australia. For 5 years I have been filming this story. Save the Flinders is one of 7 short films in the series (self funded). In this film, people of the Flinders Ranges Speak Out - ordinary people have been forced into activism to protect their communities and future generations." Trailer: vimeo.com/365455085

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. Trailer: vimeo.com/334087466

PROTECTING OUR HOMELAND: NUHE NENE BOGHILNIH (link is external)-  Canada, 2017, Director Ashton Janvier, Producer Wapikoni, Documentary, 4 min, English and Dene, English Subtitled Language - 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 mine this beautiful land. Uranium is right under the lake. They are planning to drain the lake and destroy all the surrounding natural resources, which is completely devastating. Filmmaker Ashton Janvieris a young Denesuline from the community of La Loche. He attends University through a program at the Clearwater River Dene Nation School on the reserve. He writes about his film: „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.“ Trailer: www.wapikoni.ca/movies/nuhe-nene-boghilnih-protecting-our-homeland(link is external)

NUCLEAR FREE POWER TO THE PEOPLE / ATOMLOS DURCH DIE MACHT - Austria, 2019, Director Markus Kaiser-Mühlecker, 74 min, Documentary, German/English with English subtitles - Austria is the only country which built a fully functional nuclear power plant and after peoples vote against it in 1978 didn't engage it. The film traces the anti-nuclear-movement in Austria, with all aspects of nuclear power in Europe, showing the history and provides an outlook on the future. As meta-theme the activities of the NPO "Atomstopp" are shown, their fight alongside democratic institutions from local government to EU-offices. So the film shows the very multifaceted topic with regards to technology, health, environment, politics and democracy, public movements and energy policy. Filmmaker Markus Kaiser-Mühlecker(link is external) studied film, video and audio at the University of Applied Sciences Salzburg and sociology at the University of Vienna. Since 2005 he has been living and working as a documentary and corporate filmmaker near Linz. „Nuclear free power to the people“ is his second feature length film and received in 2019 the RAGFF Venezia best retro avantgarde documentary feature film award. Trailer: www.kmfilm.at/portfolio/atomlos/(link is external)

THE ZONE - POST ATOMIC JOURNEY(link is external) - The movie directors, Alessandro Tesei and Pierpaolo Mittica , joined a group of stalker and penetrate in Chernobyl exclusion zone, filming one of the most incredible and adventurous trip ever made. It’s a romantic story of friendship and love for an ended world, a pure survival trip among soviet memories and wild and contaminated nature, and a loving tribute to the famous Tarkovskij ‘s movie “Stalker”, the Strugatzki brothers’ book “Roadside picnic”, and the videogame “S.T.A.L.K.E.R.”.

Both authors are experts on issues related to radioactive contamination, and have produced over the years various video and photographic reportages in the most polluted areas of the world, including Fukushima , Kysthym, Magnitogorsk, Karabash. Historical partners and supporters of the Volunteer Association Mondo in Cammino , with which they produced the documentary “Fukushima no Daymio” and “Behind the Urals”, winners of several national and international awards. Trailer: https://www.thezonemovie.com/en/(link is external)

GREEN WARRIORS - SOUTH AFRICA: TOXIC TOWNSHIPS (VERT DE RAGE - AFRIQUE DU SUD: TOXIC TOWNSHIPS)(link is external) - France/South Africa, 2018, Director Martin Boudot, 54 min, English - 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. Martin Boudot is a French investigative journalist and documentary filmmaker based in Paris, France. He is the host and producer of Green Warriors, a series of scientific investigations on environmental issues, broadcast on France 5, Al-Jazeera, Amazon Prime. He graduated from the Professional Journalism School of Tours (EPJT) and achieves his cameraman training at the University of Northern Colorado, USA. He then worked for several TV stations & agencies like ABC News in Denver, Premières Lignes Télévision, France Televisions, Canal + and Arte. Trailer: vimeo.com/365792453

THE BEGINNING OF THE END OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS(link is external) - Spain, 2019, director Álvaro Orús, producer Tony Robinson, documentary, English with German subtitles, 56 min - On the 7th of July 2017, 122 countries voted in favour of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Countries that don’t have nuclear weapons but live under their threat voted for a ban. Without the knowledge of most of their citizens, the governments of the world’s nuclear powers didn’t vote, and yet the ban went ahead. Something new is happening. This documentary film about efforts to bring a nuclear weapon ban treaty into international law and the role of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, ICAN, is told through the voices of leading activists from several different organizations and countries and the president of the negotiating conference. 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.Trailer: www.theendofnuclearweapons.com(link is external)

THE ATOMIC ADVENTURE /L'AVENTURE ATOMIQUE - France, 2019, Director Loic Barché, Doc Fiction, 25 min, French with English subtitles - Algeria in the year 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, a world obsessed with progress. Trailer: 

 - More info: en.unifrance.org/movie/47875/the-atomic-adventure

DAY OF THE WESTERN SUNRISE  - United States, 2018, Director Keith Reimink, Animation Documentary, 75 min, Japanese with English subtitles -  Cold war in the 1950ies. The US testing nuclear bombs in the Pacific. 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 ‚radiation-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. Filmmaker Keith Reimink (link is external)graduated from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts with a BFA in Film and TV Production. His first documentary, the award-winning 'No Horizon Anymore,' chronicled a year he spent living and working at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station.  He writes: „It is the belief of the filmmakers that above the ideas of politics, religion, and financial gain, must be the ability to create a peaceful and thriving society. Operation Castle, consisting of six thermonuclear detonations over the course of five months, happened at a time when the focus of the world centered on strength, domination, and fear rather than unity and acceptance. The global impact of these thermonuclear tests is still felt today by the Marshallese who were displaced from their homes on Rongelap and Bikini and are unable to return, and by the Japanese citizens who look to international governments to release still classified documents.“ Trailer: vimeo.com/288756720

THE SOVIET GARDEN(link is external) - Moldova/Romania, 2019, Director Dragoș Turea,Producer Parmis Film Studio and RovaFilm(link is external), Documentary, 76 min, Romanian with English Subtitles - Dragosh, filmmaker from Moldova which was formerly part of the Soviet Union, discovers a secret scientific experiment. Through nearly ten years of investigations, Dragosh unveils the secret plan of Nikita Khrushchev to transform Moldova into a Soviet Garden through the application of atomic science in local agriculture, that created an agricultural Chernobyl. Soil and plants in Moldova have been subjected to radiation experiments to become more resistant and productive. The price for those experiments is paid today: radioactive contaminated lands, an still uninformed population, more and more people suffering from cancer, infested equipment hidden in bunkers, reduced biodiversity, lost seed heritage. And many of those who were involved in the radioactive experiments have died very early.

Filmmaker Dragos Turea (link is external)was born in Chisinau, Moldova in 1980 and studied Audiovisual Communication at the Academy of Theatre and Film, Bucharest and has a Master’s Degree in Film, at the Chisinau Academy of Music, Theatre and Arts. He worked as a Producer for Publika TV, Prime TV and Jurnal TV.  Already in 2010 he started ‘’The Soviet Garden“. Trailer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBtHarJ_f3o(link is external) - Info: A new documentary about the radioactive Soviet past of Moldova “The Soviet Garden" https://www.moldova.org/en/a-new-documentary-about-the-soviet-past-of-mo...(link is external) -soon-released-the-soviet-garden

VALLEY OF THE GODS (link is external)- 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(link is external), 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(link is external) 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 the 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.  I adopted a different way of storytelling, the logic that is found in their religion and mythology." Trailer: https://vimeo.com/357576802

Info: https://variety.com/2019/film/festivals/camerimage-lech-majewski-valley-...