The 4th edition of Rio's International Uranium Film Festival has honored the year’s winners during an awarding ceremony at the Modern Art Museum Cinemateque. 13 “atomic” documentaries and movies from 11 countries - Argentina, Brazil, Australia, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Japan, Poland, Turkey, UK, and Ukraine - received five Yellow Oscars and eight Special Recognitions. The International Uranium Film Festival Rio de Janeiro is dedicated to all films about nuclear power, uranium and radioactive risks, from Hiroshima to Fukushima. It is the "Atomic Cannes".
This year the Uranium Film Festival's Yellow Oscar awards went to two films from Germany “Yellow Cake: The Dirt behind Uranium (short version)” by Joachim Tschirner and to “Final Picture” by Michael von Hohenberg. The in Brazil living Argentinian Filmmaker Roberto Fernandez received the Yellow Oscar for his short film “11:02 de 1945 Retratos de Nagasaki“ about atomic bomb survivers living in São Paulo. Bogna Kowalczyk from Poland received the Yellow Oscar for her animated short film “After All”, and “Fukushame. The Lost Japan” by Director Alessandro Tesei from Italy was the festival´s best feature documentary about Fukushima.
Special Recognitions went to:
"A2-B-C" by Director Ian Thomas Ash, Japan; “Eternal Tears” by Director Kseniya Simonova, Ukraine; “Fallout” by Director Lawrence Johnston, Australia; “The Nuclear Boy Scout” by Director Bindu Mathur, UK; “Inheritance” by Director Margaret Cox, UK; “Wake Up” by Director David Bradbury, Australia; “Nuclear Winter” by Directors: Megan Taite, Jefferson Tolentino, Erwin Bonifacio, Robert Mullally, Shane Donohue, Jack Travers e Eimhin McNamara (director supervisor), Ireland; “The Cloud Has Passed Over Us” (Üstümüzden Geçti Bulut) by Director Yaşar Arif Karagülle, Turkey.
About the Yellow Oscar 2014 winners:
CATEGORY ANIMATED FILM
After All
Director Bogna Kowalczyk, Poland, 2013, 5 min, Animation, no dialogue - The story of an art perform ace when the vision of performer hardy miss match with the vision of an audience.
"After All is the best animated film of the Uranium Film Festival 2014. The film by Bogna Kowalczyk shows us through the metaphor striptease the hazards of radioactivity and nuclear power. The short film is produced digitally, a simple 2D vector animation and uses few colors. The script here is more important than the technique of animation. The scene in which the stripper takes off her own skin, her flesh and her bones shocked. It is a mood for a few, but manages to reach the spectator and so it is the winner”, Leo Ribeiro, Brazilian Professor and animation Filmmaker.Trailer:
CATEGORY LATIN AMERICAN SHORT DOCUMENTARY
11:02 de 1945 Retratos de Nagasaki
Director Roberto Fernández, Brazil/Argentina, 2014, 31 min, documentary, Japanese, Portuguese subtitles, World Premiere
It happened on August 9th in 1945. It is 11:02 o clock in the morning. The U.S.A dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Nagasaki. Tens of thousands of civilians died a horror full death.Some survived. And some of these survivors - called Hibakusha - came to live in Brazil. Filmmaker Roberto Fernández tells their stories. The Argentinian filmmaker lives since 2007 in São Paulo, Brazil, in close relationship with the A-Bomb survivors. With the "Yellow Oscar" the Uranium Film Festival wants to honor Roberto Fernandez who dedicated his work for years to rescue the voice of the Hibakusha, the memory of the survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki in São Paulo, Brazil. It is an extremely difficult and sensible tasks. Because it is hard for the survivors to remember and to talk. It is hard and sorrowful to bring back the pain of the horrors experienced. Roberto was able to recover these memories in his films with delicacy and respect for the atomic bomb survivors, a valuable rescue. Trailer:
CATEGORY SHORT DOCUMENTARY
Yellow Cake. The Dirt Behind Uranium (short version)
Director Joachim Tschirner, Germany, 2010/2014, 35 min (Short version), documentary, English
A film about Germany‘s secret uranium mine „Wismut“ and the in the worlds first try to clean-up the toxic and radioactive legacy of an uranium mine. The 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. A web of propaganda, disinformation and lies covers its sixty-five-year history. 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.
"Good camera, impressive images, great sound and a current subject that is important for all countries with uranium mining operations and unsecured uranium mines like Brazil, USA, Portugal, Australia, Russia, India, Canada and many others. Right now people and environmental organizations for example in USA campaigning for the clean-up of the toxic and radioactive legacy of their uranium mines. And the short film “Yellow Cake: The dirt behind uranium” is a film they have to watch and will never forget. Because it shows the in the world first try to clean-up the deadly, toxic and radioactive legacy of the third biggest uranium mine in the world, the Wismut in East Germany, that produced in secrecy for dozens of years the Yellow Cake for Soviet Unions atomic bombs." Uranium Film Festival
Director‘s note - YELLOW CAKE is the result of a project, which began in 2002. The World Uranium Hearing took place more than a decade ago. The declaration of this hearing became the essential meaning of my film: “Radioactivity knows nothing of cultural differences or political boundaries. And in a mutated world poisoned by deadly radioactivity, it will no longer be of importance whether we separate our garbage, drive fewer cars, use phosphate free detergent, or plant a tree. Nor will it matter if we spend our time trying to save the elephants. Whatever action we would take at that point would be superfluous and devoid of meaning. That’s why the end of the atomic age must begin with the first link in the chain of nuclear production – The Uranium Mining.” During my research I have experienced that despite its explosive nature, uranium mining seldom makes it into public awareness. The film "Yellow Cake" is my reaction to this unacceptable situation. For me it was quite clear that unbiased, well researched information about uranium mining is absolutely necessary. http://www.yellowcake-derfilm.de/index.php?id=209
CATEGORY FEATURE DOCUMENTARY
Fukushame. The Lost Japan
Director Alessandro Tesei, Italy, 2013, 64 min, documentary, Italian, English subtitles
A travel both into the “No Go Zone” of Fukushima and in Japanese people’s feelings and believes after the reaction to nuclear disaster. March 11, 2011: Japan was struck by one of the most violent earthquakes ever recorded then proceeded by a Tsunami. Waves exceeded every security barrier and damaged Fukushima’s Central Nuclear Power Plant provoking huge amounts of radioactive particles throughout Japan. A restricted area with a 20 km diameter, the No-Go Zone, was immediately evacuated and declared an off-limits territory. Seven months after the disaster photographer Alessandro Tesei succeeded in entering the forbidden area. Fukushame has gathered images from Tesei’s trip, numerous interviews of both common people and politicians and special contributions of scientific explanations of great significance. Trailer
“The documentary Fukushame is an excellent fresh journalistic coverage of the Fukushima accident. The Italian video reporter was one of the first foreigners to enter the forbidden area around the nuclear power plant and had access to an interview of former premier Naoto Kan. Fukushame explains in detail the nuclear accident, the melt down of the Fukushima reactor and shows that those responsible must be ashamed.” Uranium Film Festival
Director‘s note - I'm very proud to be in the official selection of this festival. I' d like to show people the madness of nuclear energy and the lie of its "civil use". I was one of the first western videomakers sneaked inside the forbidden area around the Fukushima Daichi nuclear power plant, only six months after accident. I remember the fear in my heart that became higher every time the geiger counter showed a radiation increase, and I remember the loneliness of the evacuated people and the dramatic situation of the families, splitted in different parts, due to the incapacity of the japanese government to find a solution. Now the situation is even worse, because years has passed and the memory of the people is weak. The government has reopened a huge section of the no go zone and with the lies of the decontamination process is forcing the people to came back there; most of them have only this choice, because they lose everything and have no money, so the disaster is still going on. We must talk continuously about that and don't forget the innocent victims of this dirty game, called nuclear energy.
Yellow Oscar 2014 Winner
CATEGORY MOVIE
Final Picture
Director Michael von Hohenberg, Germany, 2013, 92 min, Fiction, German, English subtitles
Leading Actor Hubert Burczek, Sound designer Klaus Pfreundner
Atomic War! What will happen in a small town in the middle of Germany? People enter the bunkers. But there is space only for a few. The movie is a project by the “Jugendfilmprojekte Oberfranken”. It was shot in original bunkers in the Bavarian region Oberfranken with many young people, shooting their first professional movie.
“In the past century there have been produced very good movies about nuclear power and its risks”, says Uranium Film Festival director Norbert G. Suchanek. “For example the great movie The China Syndrome with the stars Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon and Michael Douglas. The China Syndrome was about the melt down of a nuclear power plant like Fukushima and was produced one year after the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster in 1978. Another successful atomic film was The Day After, produced in 1983, showing the terrible effects of a nuclear war. A movie that scared generations, but could not stop the construction of thousands of nuclear war heads in USA, China, Russia, UK, France, Pakistan, Israel or India. Nuclear war is still a real danger! But in the contrary nuclear fiction movies are very rare now in these days. For that we are glad that the Uranium Film Festival received Final Picture. A movie that follows the huge Hollywood footsteps of The Day After. Michael von Hohenberg directed a film team of dozens of young people and a few professionals. The result is simple a good movie about Nuclear War and what will happen in a Franconian village in central Germany. The Uranium Film Festival honors the Final Picture, his director, his film team, leading actor Hubert Burczek (photo) and sound designer Klaus Pfreundner with a Yellow Oscar. Final Picture is an example for other film schools and young film teams. http://www.jugendfilmprojekte.de/projekte/final-picture/index.php
Director‘s note - Final Picture is a movie, haunted in my head since years. I could not understand why human beings do need weapons like an atomic bomb. 2012 I started to write the screenplay to “Final Picture”. It was written in three weeks and the shooting was planed completely in four months. I collected 15.000 Euro. That had to be enough for the project. We shot our movie in nearly two weeks in original locations. Many people said “This is historic from cold war. Nobody wants to see a movie like this.”, but after the first screening they changed their mind. Also world politics changed since our shooting. Newspapers all over Europe titled “The world again is afraid of an atomic war”. Now the people say “This movie is food for thought about atomic bombs and what could happen.
SPECIAL RECOGNITION
A2-B-C
Director Ian Thomas Ash, Japan, 2013, 71 min, documentary, Japanese & English, English subtitles
The award-winning film A2-B-C is named for the different stages of growth of thyroid cells from harmless cysts to cancer. Many children in Fukushima were never evacuated after the nuclear meltdown on March 11, 2011. Now the number of Fukushima children found to have thyroid cysts and nodules is increasing. What will this mean for their future? „There is no way for us to escape from this fear.We're not only worried about external radiation exposure, but also about internal exposure. So we're testing all the food.“Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD9yGONdEUY
Marcia Gomes de Oliveira, executive director of the Uranium Film Festival, says: "A2-B-C is an important message from the mothers from Fukushima to the world: the pains and worries about their children. The film draws our attention to the high rate of thyroid cancer in children living in regions contaminated by the Fukushima nuclear accident."
"Ian Thomas helps the people, he makes eye witness reports. His heroes are the parents and children. A2BC is fantastic and gruesome at the same time.”Comment by Chernobyl Children
Director’s note - I didn’t come to Japan to make a film about Fukushima. Japan is my home, and after the nuclear meltdown in 2011, I documented what was happening around me. ‘A2-B-C’ is about the lie that decontamination is possible and about the children living and going to school in areas contaminated with radiation. But if you leave the film thinking “oh, those poor people over there in that far away country”, you’ll be missing the point. What happened in Fukushima affects all of us. It is not over. And it could happen again. http://ianthomasash.blogspot.com.br
Eternal Tears
Director Kseniya Simonova, Ukraine, 2011, 11min, Animation, no dialogue.
The film was created in sand animation technique as a tribute to those who died immediately or was dying a slow death for years or who today is seriously ill having received the radiation dose as a child. Chernobyl consequences, we see them today, the increasing number of cancer patients, especially among children in my country. These are the children of my peers, peers of Chernobyl catastrophe. Every event of our times and each event of the past should teach us: The main thing is to remember. http://simonova.tv/en/blog/
Fallout
Director Lawrence Johnston, Producer Peter Kaufmann (Photo), Australia, 2013, 86 min, Documentary, English
In 1959 Stanley Kramer and Hollywood landed in Australia to film ON THE BEACH, adapted from Nevil Shute’s novel written as a consequence of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The production was a media circus, the public thrilled at the sight of Ava Gardner and Gregory Peck, but it ended in acrimony for Shute and Kramer. Meanwhile the Eisenhower administration, fearing the impact of the reality of nuclear war on the American people, attempted to obstruct the film's production and discredit it on release. FALLOUT pays tribute to Shute's cautionary tale for the potential of nuclear disaster, and the galvanising impact of a terror to which we have now become strangely inured. FALLOUT not only reveals the untold story of ON THE BEACH but also explores the resonance of both the novel and the film in the post Fukushima age as Shute’s prophesy becomes eerily prescient once again...
"Fallout is very interesting because of the history and because the film includes original material from Hollywood. The film stands out for addressing the nuclear issue from a different angle, through a book and a fiction film." Uranium Film Festival
Inheritance
Director Margaret Cox, UK, 2013, 10 min, documentary, English
“Inheritance” tells the story of the British re-colonising of Africa, through Lonrho's resource wars, and the British involvement in the use of Depleted Uranium in the Iraq war. The film focuses particular attention on the metaphorical and literal sickness caused by the radioactive legacy for example the use of Depleted Uranium by US and UK forces in the city of Fallujah, Iraq.
Director’s note - A collation of new material from Heathcote Williams' Anarcho- Pacifist poem "Royal Babylon: The Criminal Record of the British Monarchy,” “Inheritance” profiles the complex web of British Royal finances, their dangerous sources, and their damaging consequences. Focusing on the use of Depleted Uranium, we wanted to add our voice to the protest against the use of chemical weapons, and support the call for accountability over continued Human Rights abuses, through environmental contamination.
The Nuclear Boy Scout
Director Bindu Mathur, UK, 2003, 24 min, documentary, English, Portuguese subtitles
A true story about the teenager David Hahn, who experimented in his home with radioactive materials. He found radioactive substances in Supermarkets and second-hand shops and tried to build a nuclear reactor.
Director‘s note - I found the story of David Hahn in a magazine article in late 1990 and immediately became fascinated with their experiences and methods. I went to meet him and his family and tried to 'sell' the idea for British television. But only after the 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, the story of David and its easy access to radioactive materials became the subject of general interest. What if terrorists can - like David - get radioactive materials in their hands and build a „dirty nuclear bomb“? That's how I won the commission for Channel 4 in the UK in 2003.
I met David once before production and then spent 10 days filming with him. I was impressed by his intelligence, his creativity and intensity of their efforts. There was something exciting when I went with him to the market place to find radioactive elements, for example. But he was careless about the dangers. Later I learned that he had been diagnosed as schizophrenic, and for that unfortunately, his great intelligence and passion for science have never been grown in a university. Interesting is that the the son of David Bowie, filmmaker Duncan Jones, was influenced by „The Nuclear Boy Scout“ when he directed the 2011 produced French–American science fictiontechno-thriller„Source Code“ and created the character of a terrorist making „dirty bombs“.
"The Nuclear Boy Scout is an important warning about the eminent dangers of easy access of radioactive elements in our daily lives." Uranium Film Festival
Wake Up
Director David Bradbury, Australia, 2011, 12 min, documentary, English
Wake up is a must-see short movie about uranium mining in Australia. The film is presented by famous Australian actor Tony Barry (Photo). He was born in Queensland in 1941 and has performed in 56 feature films and 45 television series, across a four-decade career.
"Everything you need to know about uranium mining in 12 minutes. Wake up is consistent and well done. It perfectly serves its purpose of alerting." Uranium Film Festival
The Cloud Has Passed Over Us (Üstümüzden Geçti Bulut)
Director Yaşar Arif Karagülle,Turkey, 2012, 15 min, Fiction, English subtitles
In April 1986 happened the Chernobyl nuclear accident. Radioactive clouds reached the north of Turkey. The young Cengiz, who comes back to the place that he was born, has to face his father's memory, his own past, and uncertain future in the wake of Chernobyl. Trailer:
"The Cloud Has Passed Over Us is a film of great sensibility to a problem that is not yet being realized to the general public. A nuclear accident is a universal and borderless problem", Marcia Gomes de Oliveira, Uranium Film Festival.
Nuclear Winter
Directors: Megan Taite, Jefferson Tolentino, Erwin Bonifacio, Robert Mullally, Shane Donohue, Jack Travers e Eimhin McNamara (director supervisor), Ireland, 2012, 5 min, Animation, no dialogue.http://www.pureproject.ie/what-we-do/pure-animation-movies/
“A ship dumps its cargo of nuclear waste in the Arctic, stirring something strange up from from the depths...” An animated film about the unnatural affects nuclear waste might have on our environment. A short film created by students (aged 14-17 years old): Megan Taite, Jefferson Tolentino, Erwin Bonifacio, Robert Mullally, Shane Donohue and Jack Travers during the PURE Animation Environmental Film School, which was hosted by Eimhin McNamara in Co-Operation with the PURE Project and took place in April, 2012, Dún Laoghaire, Ireland.
"Nuclear Winter is a nice animated film made by young students. As one of our tasks the Uranium Film Festival wants to stimulate the production of new films about nuclear issues and the involvement of young people. And Nuclear Winter is a good example for others to follow." Uranium Film Festival
ABOUTH THE YELLOW OSCAR
The best or most important films receive the festival's award, the "Yellow Oscar".
The award is a piece of art produced by Waste-Material-Artist Getúlio Damado, who lives and works in the famous artist quarter Santa Teresa in Rio de Janeiro. In contrast to the "Hollywood Oscar", the International Uranium Film Festival Award is not of Gold. Getúlio Damado make his "Yellow Oscars" from waste material, that he finds in the streets of Santa Teresa. (Photo shows the "Final Picture" film team with the Yellow Oscar)
ABOUT THE FESTIVAL
About one year before the Fukushima reactor exploded, the International Uranium Film Festival (IUFF) was founded in 2010 in Santa Teresa, the famous artist quarter in the heart of Rio de Janeiro. It is the first festival of its kind that addresses all nuclear and radioactive issues. The aim is to inform about nuclear power, uranium mining, nuclear weapons and the risks of radioactivity. Independent documentaries and movies are the best tool to bring that information to a diverse international public. And a festival is the best way to bring the films to the people! The horror of atomic bombs and those who suffered from them, and nuclear accidents like Three Mile Island and Chernobyl should never be forgotten - nor repeated. Then the nuclear accident in Fukushima happened just two months before the first edition of the International Uranium Film Festival in May 2011 in Rio de Janeiro.
Uranium mining, fracking, nuclear accidents, atomic bomb factories, nuclear waste: No matter if you are in favour or against the use of nuclear power, all people should be informed about the risks. The International Uranium Film Festivals creates a neutral space to throw light on all nuclear issues. It stimulates new productions, supports "nuclear" filmmaking and the discussion about the nuclear question in Brazil and worldwide.
FESTIVAL TRAILER 2014
Produced by Leo Ribeiro,
Brazilian filmmaker of animated films,
with several award winning short films.
www.leoribeiroanima.blogspot.com
International Uranium
Film Festival Rio de Janeiro
Rua Monte Alegre, 356 / 301
Rio de Janeiro / RJ
CEP 20240-194
Brasil
www.uraniumfilmfestival.org
info@uraniumfilmfestival.org
Download Festival Programm with film list
http://de.scribd.com/doc/222613160/4th-Rio-de-Janeiro-Uranium-Film-Festival-2014-Program-English
http://de.scribd.com/doc/223074157/Rio-de-Janeiro-Uranium-Film-Festival-Programacao-Maio-2014
http://de.scribd.com/marcia_