Festival Program

12 pm to 2 pm

INTER-CONTINENTAL BUNKER MISSION - I.C.B.M.

Sweden/Korea/Scotland, 2022, Director Julian Vogel, Producer Jack Allen and Reece Smith, Feature Documentary, 80 minutes, English, Former IUFF Award Winner.

It’s May, 2018. Nils is arriving back to his home in the suburbs of Stockholm, Sweden. As he opens the door, a leaflet is caught in the letterbox entitled: “If War or Crisis Comes”. It is a leaflet distributed to every household in Sweden, sent out by the government for the first time since 1962 - when the world was in the midst of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Together with his best friend Julian, Nils embarks on an Inter-Continental Bunker Mission; to learn from the best in order to outlast what calamity is sure to come. Nils and Julian go on a journey around the world to find out what a global nuclear war, and the end of the world might look like, and how they might try to prepare for such a scenario. Finally, after months of traveling to gather opinions and knowledge on the subject, they construct and live in a fallout shelter - in Nils’ parent’s basement in Stockholm. From pretending the world has ended at a Post-Apocalyptic Festival in Poland, to encounters with hardcore survivalists in the United States, to meeting with survivors of the Hiroshima Atomic bomb attack in Japan, Nils and Julian hope their journey inspires others to join the debate on what we can do as a global community to prevent such disasters from happening.

ICBM is an accessible and entertaining documentary, with the potential of creating debate and further outreach on the subject of nuclear arms, collaborating with organisations such as The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Hiroshima Interpreters for Peace and others. The film aims to be funny, turned serious, and encourage younger generations to engage with those generations who lived through the cold war on a subject that in today’s darkening political climate is becoming ever more concerning.

2 pm to 4 pm

Films on Depleted Uranium Weapons

DEVIL’S WORK

Brazil/USA, 2015, Director Miguel Silveira, Producer J. Charles Banks, Scott Riehs, Hugo Kenzo, Dp John Wakayama Carey, Missy Hernandez.

Fiction, 19 min. Former IUFF Award Winner. www.miguelsilveirafilm.com

BALENTES - THE BRAVE ONES (I CORAGGIOSI)

Italy, 2018, Director Lisa Camillo, Documentary, 84 min, Italian / English subtitles. Former IUFF Award Winner.

When SardinianAustralian Lisa Camillo, an anthropologist and film director, returns to Sardinia she finds that large chunks of her homeland are devastated by mysterious bombs. On her journey she uncovers secret NATO bombing ranges. Tests with depleted uranium weapons have been having devastating consequences on the local human and animal population. Lisa joins the islanders’ fight to reclaim their land and livelihoods and, in doing so, she is learning about herself and her roots. “Balentes’ is a Sardinian word indicating ‘a man of valour’, who strives for social justice, defending the weak against the oppressors. Sardinians have always been a warrior people, a fact sometimes forgotten, combatting the many invaders landing on their shores over the ages with courage and valour. Lisa Camillo is a passionate human rights driven filmmaker, anthropologist, presenter and writer. She has directed, produced and wrote award-winning documentaries and films that travelled across the world in several international film festivals. www.balentesfilm.com

Q & A with Miguel Silveira & the IUFF directors

4 pm / Internatonal atomic short films

MR. HOPPE AND THE NUCLEAR WASTE

Directors Jan Lachauer and Thorsten Löffler, Germany, 2011, 4 min, Animation, English subtitles.

What to do with nuclear waste?

SAM AND THE PLANT NEXT DOOR

Denmark/UK - 2019, Director Ömer Sami, Documentary, English, 23 min. / Former IUFF Award Winner.

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. Hinkley Point, on the Somerset coast, is the biggest building site in Europe and the most expensive nuclear power station in the world.

COFFEE BREAK (FIKAPAUS)

Sweden, 2011, Comedy-Thriller, Director Marko Kattilakoski, Main actor Henning Larsson Müller, Swedish, Subtitles:English, 15 Min. Former IUFF Award Winner.

During a coffee break two men, wearing protective suits, are having a conversation about Chernobyl, Harrisburg, Forsmark and nuclear meltdowns. Back at work their lack of empathy makes them true professionals. And someone else becomes a victim.

4:45 PM - COFFEE BREAK

5 to 6 pm / International films on uranium mining

YELLOW CAKE. DIRT BEHIND URANIUM (SHORT VERSION)

Director Joachim Tschirner, Germany, 2010/2014, 35 min (Short version), Documentary, English

Uranium Mining and the production of Yellow Cake is the first link in the chain of nuclear development. It has managed again and again to keep itself out of the public eye. The third largest uranium mine in the world was located in the East German provinces of Saxony and Thuringia. Operating until the Reunification, it had the code name WISMUT - German for bismuth, though it supplied the Soviet Union exclusively with Yellow Cake. The film accompanies for several years the biggest clean-up operation in the history of uranium mining. www.yellowcake-derfilm.de

JADUGODA - THE LAND OF MAGIC

India, 2023, Director Satish Munda, Producer Rajat Agrawal, Key Cast, Harish Khanna, Chanda Mehra, Short fiction, 20 min. Hindi, English subtitles In 1998, the town of Jadugoda also called the Land of Magic, is at India’s forefront for mining Uranium. The economic boost in India is catalyzingthe nation’s dream to establish its name in the list of the world’s most powerful nuclear forces. However, due to this, Jadugoda is being continuously poisoned by the uranium mining dump. Aloof from the desire for nuclear power and geo-political warfare, the innocent and poor Adivasi people in the town who aim to live a simple livelihood are suffering from these radiations daily. Men are getting scarred and crippled while women are giving birth to stillborn and disabled children. Many women are suffering from infertility too. As a result of this, families from nearby towns and villages are not willing to get their kids married to any person in this village, especially that to women. Dama, a 45-year-old farmer dreams of getting his only daughter, Rupni married. Director Satish Munda is Adivasi himself. He is nominated for the first "Samuel Lawrence Foundation Award for the Best Young Filmmaker“.

6 pm to 8 pm / Uranium mining in USA

DEMON MINERAL

USA, 2022, Director: Hadley Austin, Producer: Nevo Shinaar. Cinematographer: Yoni Goldstein, Impact Producer: Emma Robbins, Co-Writer: Tommy Rock, Documentary, 95 mins. English, Navajo.

DEMON MINERAL is a film 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. 'Demon Mineral' won the Audience Award for Best Documentary at Slamdance Film Festival 2024. Film info: https://www.redfordcenter.org/films/demon-mineral/

Director Hadley Austin is a writer, filmmaker, photographer, researcher, and producer. She is, alongside Yoni Goldstein, one half of Formidable Entities. Hadley’s work as a writer, documentarian and artist is rooted in historical research, social justice, and the natural world. Everything from dogsled races to dance performances. www.hadleyaustin.com

Free admission