Film Program

5:30 pm - Guest Speaker from the Golden Rule

6:00 pm - ANOINTED

Marshall Islands, 2018, Directors Dan Lin & Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner, poem video, English, 6 min.

A powerful poem video about the legacy of the US atomic bomb tests on the Marshall

Islands and the Runit dome nuclear waste site in the Enewetak Atoll.

You were a whole island, once. You were breadfruit trees heavy with green globes of fruit whispering promises of massive canoes. Crabs dusted with white sand scuttled through pandanus roots. Beneath looming coconut trees beds of ripe watermelon slept still, swollen with juice. And you were protected by powerful irooj, chiefs birthed from women who could swim pregnant for miles beneath a full moon. Then you became testing ground. Nine nuclear weapons consumed you, one by one by one, engulfed in an inferno of blazing heat. You became crater, an empty belly. Plutonium ground into a concrete slurry filled your hollow cavern. You became tomb. You became concrete shell. You became solidified history, immoveable, unforgettable. You were a whole island, once.“ Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner www.kathyjetnilkijiner.com

SEA GYPSIES: THE PLUTONIUM DOME

2021, Marshall Islands, Director Nico Edwards, English, 35 min. Trailer.

In the middle of the pacific ocean, the sailing ship Infinity and her ragtag crew stumble upon one of the most dangerous islands on earth. Birthplace of the hydrogen bomb, this tiny atoll absorbed the nuclear equivalent of 1.5 Hiroshima bombs a day for 12 years. That legacy waits near the beach, in a giant unguarded crumbling concrete dome. The Infinity crew learned that the Marshall Islands’ post office, and monthly deliveries of food and cash from the US government were part of a reparations arrangement that was intended to compensate the islanders for being the victims of 30 years of nuclear testing, a toxic legacy that will linger far longer (50,000+ years) than the payments, which end in 2023. Marshall Islands Atomic Test Clean-up Veteran Paul Griego about the film: I feel it is as great film and so have the other atomic cleanup personnel I have spoken to.

7:00 pm - IN MY LIFETIME: THE NUCLEAR WORLD PROJECT

USA, 2011, Director & producer Robert E. Frye, Documentary, 109 min. www.thenuclearworld.org

In My Lifetime features moments in our history as well as current issues regarding nuclear weapons. This film is meant to be a wakeup call for humanity, to help develop an understanding of the realities of the nuclear weapon, to explore ways of presenting the answers for "a way beyond" and to facilitate a dialogue moving towards resolution of this Gordian knot of nuclear weapons gripping the world. The documentary's characters are the narrative voices, interwoven with highly visual sequences of archival and contemporary footage and animation. The story is a morality play, telling the struggle waged over the past six and half decades with the last act yet to be determined, of trying to find what is "the way beyond?" Photos were taken by Diane Love, who is also Executive Producer of the film.

Robert E. Frye: “In My Lifetime tells a story of the nuclear age from the perspective of my own personal experience, as well as, having been alive since the beginning of the three explosions in 1945 which began this era. The story told is one which is important for all humanity on the planet to understand, because if there is ever a nuclear weapons exchangebetween nations, our world will change. The recent news on climate change is a case in point, because the fallout from nuclear weapon explosions would overnight impact the global economy and climate. With the recent events in Ukraine, the two nuclear weapon states, who between them possess ninety-five percent of the weapons, The United States and Russia are suddenly again adversaries. We live in unpredictable times and the documentary is meant to give all an understanding of the consequences of the continuing presence of nuclear weapons, at this writing there are 17,000 in the arsenals of the nine states who possess them.“ Photo: Atomic filmmakers Robert Frye (right) and David Rothauser (left) at the Uranium Film Festival in New York 2014.