The Uranium Film Festival – 2011-05-12 00:41:28
http://www.uraniumfilmfestival.org
Uranio em Movi(e)mento — The 1st International Festival of Films on Nuclear Energy,
Rio de Janeiro May 16th to 28th, 2011
“The Sacrifice,” a Japanese filmmaker devoted several decades to documenting the lives of some of the men Who volunteeered to become “liquidators” — workers who risked their lives to repair the damaged nuclear reactor at Chernobyl. The Russian government promised these workers financial support and lifetime care — and then turned its back on them.
RIO (May 11, 2011) — From all the films coming in from the entire world, we selected early this year 34 films for the screenings. See the full film list and the program/schedule of Rio: http://www.uraniumfilmfestival.org/html/films_2011.html
The Movie “The Return of Navajo Boy” USA, 2008, 57 minutes, by Director Jeff Spitz is one of eight best films of the 1st International Festival of Films on Nuclear Energy in Rio de Janeiro.
The entire world knows John Ford and John Wayne and their legendary films of the Wild West. The documentary of Jeff Spitz connects these important stars of Hollywood with the suffer of the indigenes people of the southwest of USA, the Navajo (Diné), who suffers until today because of uranium mining, which took place in their territory and used miss-informed Navajo people as cheap uranium miners to create the first atomic bombs!
A jury composed of scientists, journalists, producers and film experts has selected “The Return of Navajo Boy” together with seven other documentaries and movies among 34 for the official screenings selected films to compete in the awards for the Best Short and the Best Feature Film of the festival.
The other selected films are:
Into Eternity, Denmark, 2009, 75 min. by Director Michael Madsen. The film questions whether a safe deposit of radioactive waste from nuclear plants is possible or not? Who will protect the extremely radioactive waste for at least a hundred thousand years?
Beating the Bomb, United Kingdom, 2010, 71 min, by Director Wolfgang Matt and Meera Patel. It is an intelligent, very good produced film about the peace movement in Britain against the atomic bomb.
Chernobyl, Une Histoire Naturelle? (Chernobyl, a natural history?), France, 2010, 90 min, by Director Luc Riolon. The film shows the nuclear accident of April 26, 1986 in the Ukraine and what happened with nature until today. Zoologists and radioecologists are making surprising discoveries.
Om bergen faller sönder (Under the surface) , Sweden, 2010, 35 min, by Director Klara Sager. It is a simple, but clear film about a local community and indigenous population in northern Sweden and an international mining company prospecting for Uranium. The local people are afraid and against uranium prospecting and against uranium mining, because they depend on the local natural resources like the Reindeers.
Climate of Hope, Australia, 2007, 30 min, by Directors’ Scott Ludlam and Jose Garcia. This film shows the whole nuclear energy cycle, from mining uranium to the nuclear plant and its relation to the greenhouse effect. It is a very interesting film perfect for schools and universities. It says: Nuclear energy is producing a lot of CO2 and for that will not save the world against global warming!
A film, which became even more important during the last 4 weeks is a documentary made by the Costa Rican filmmaker Pablo Ortega. Uranium 238: La Bomba del Pentagon Sucia (The Dirty Bomb the Pentagon) , 2009, 28 min. The film talks about a nuclear issue that is little known in the world: rockets and bombs with depleted uranium that are radioactive and used by the USA in international wars like Iraq and very likely during the current war in Libya.
The consequences of the use of these bombs are terrible for the local population and the soldiers themselves who make use of them. Worth mentioning that last April, the government of Costa Rica became the second government of the world to ban this type of ammunition. Uranium-238 is a Brazilian premiere.
A short documentary made 2003 in Brazil by Director Luiz Eduardo Jorge is the last finalist: Césio 137 — O brilho da morte (Cesium — The Brightness of Death) : “It is a striking film”, says Professor João Luiz Leocádio. This film about the Chernobyl of Brazil, a nuclear accident that happened 1987 in the city of Goiânia, questions the competence of the national Brazilian authorities on nuclear safety.
“The film reveals that beyond the question of nuclear power plants like Angra 1 and 2, Brazil and the world must also discuss the question of the nuclear waste from hospitals and radiology centres. Everybody could be affected!” says environmental journalist Norbert G. Suchanek and General Director of the Uranium Film Festival.
During a ceremony May 28th, we will announce the two Final Winners, the Best Short and the Best Feature, of the festival!
The judges are:
John Louis Leocádio, Professor of Film & Video, University Federal Fluminense (Rio de Janeiro);
Dawid Bartelt, Director of the Heinrich Boell Foundation, Brazil Office;
Angelo Antonio Duarte, journalist and professor of Film and Audio of the Technical School;
Adolpho Bloch — FAETEC, Marco Fadiga, Producer of Caju Filmes and Technical Director of the Uranium Film Festival;
Norbert G. Suchanek, environmental and human rights Journalist, Filmmaker and General Director of the Uranium Film Festival.
Contact: Marcia Gomes de Oliveira
Coordinator 1st International Uranium Film Festival
www.uraniofestival.org
www.uraniumfilmfestival.org
Email: info@uraniumfilmfestival.org
Telephone: 0055 — 21 — 2507 6704
Urânio em Movi(e)mento
1st International World Uranium Film Festival Rio de Janeiro 2011
We are seeking support for the first Uranium Film Festival of Rio de Janeiro — scheduled for the end of May 2011. For the first time in history Brazilians will be able to see international Anti-Nuclear-Documentaries in cinema. The film and video festival “Uranio em Movi(e)mento — 1st International World Uranium Film Festival Rio de Janeiro 2011” will help to bring the Uranium — and Nuclear Question — into the national and international public.
Actual Brazil and all South America experiences a new boom of nuclear energy and uranium mining projects, without any important movement against it. Because the population is not yet well informed about the radioactive nuclear risks.
Today the Brazilian government is building the third nuclear power plant in Rio de Janeiro, Angra 3, and the first nuclear submarine of Latin America — everything with the help of France and the well-known AREVA. Also the government is planning the next nuclear power plants number 4 and 5 in the Northeast of Brazil and new uranium mines are planned also.
Today Brazil has an abandoned uranium mine in Minas Gerais, since 2000 an operating uranium mine in Bahia and soon a new uranium mine in Ceará. Beside of all that Brazil created strategic nuclear partnerships not only with Argentine, but especially with South Africa and India.
So it is important to inform the public. In a democracy only “we the people” can change things and can stop nuclear power plants, nuclear submarines or uranium mining. Only people who are well informed about the nuclear risks are willing to stop it, so the uranium question is first at all an information question.
Until today most of the documentaries about uranium and the nuclear risks are mainly in English, German or French — but not in Portuguese. So the second advantage of the Uranium Film Festival project is to subtitle the films to create the so called Yellow Archive. Yellow is the colour of Uranium and for that a symbol for the whole nuclear industry. The Yellow Archive will be the first-ever film library in Brazil and Latin America dedicated to environmental films about the whole nuclear fuel chain organized by the Uranio em Movi(e)mento Festival.
Believing that awareness is the first step in making positive changes to better our environment, the Yellow Archive hopes to increase public awareness. The DVDs will be used for non-profit, educational and research purposes. Especially schools, universities, environmental groups and other grass root movements will have access to the Yellow Archive.
We think the Urânio em Movi(e)mento Festival is very important not only for Brazil, Latin America and other Portuguese speaking countries in Europe, Africa and Asia. The event in Rio de Janeiro also will help to bring the Uranium-Question into the international public world-wide. Rio de Janeiro is not only the real centre of the nuclear industry of Brazil and Latin America. Rio will be the centre of the next soccer world cup and the city of the next Olympic games and so the world is watching!
And we should not forget that the important UNCED 1992 happened in Rio! And May 2012 when the “Rio+20 Earth Summit” proposed by President Lula will happen, Rio de Janeiro will be again in the focus of the environmental world and hopefully we will have parallel of that global event our second International World Uranium Film Festival Rio de Janeiro.
The organizers are Márcia Gomes de Oliveira, Norbert G. Suchanek and other concerned citizens of Brazil. The film festival Urânio em Movi(e)mento will happen in May 2011, 21th until 28th.
Festival Address
Urânio em Movi(e)mento
Rua Monte Alegre 356, Apt. 301
Santa Teresa
Rio de Janeiro / RJ
CEP 20240-190 — Brazil
Festivaldirector: Márcia Gomes de Oliveira
Email-contact: Marcia.Gomes@online.de
