Nuclear Hotseat

THE MOTH filmmakers Michelle DeRosier (l) and Zoe Gordon

Filmmakers Michelle DeRosier and Zoe Gordon collaborated on THE MOTH, a cautionary story resonating with this current moment in Northern Ontario. It’s 2039 in Omagakii First Nation. The land has been consumed by lithium mines and the Nuclear Waste Corporation has buried 100,000 tonnes of Canada’s nuclear waste in the ground. Few were prepared for the disaster. An Ogichidaa-Kwe woman who refused to evacuate survives in isolation, continuing to love and resist as the world sickens around her. Winner, 15th Rio de Janeiro International Uranium Film Festival 2026 Native Spirit Award.

FACT: In Canada, all used nuclear fuel is currently stored at the site where it was produced. However, this may change. In 2025 the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) proposed transportation of radioactive waste to a new deep geologic burial site in the Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation-Ignace area, in proximity to numerous Indigenous and northern communities.  THE MOTH dramatizes what life could be like in the wake of an unnamed disaster in the area.

Mural by Shelby Gagnon

• Michelle Derosier is Anishinaabe from Migisi Sahgaigan First Nation in Treaty 3 Territory in Northern Ontario, Canada. She has been living in Thunder Bay, Ontario for 35 years. Michelle has been making films for 18 years.  Her work has screened nationally and internationally at the Sundance Film Festival, MaoriLand in New Zealand, the New York Museum of Arts and Design, INDIANER INUIT in Germany, LA Skins Film Festival and ImagineNATIVE, to name a few. Her work has aired on APTN, TVO, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and Prime.
  
• Zoe Gordon is a media artist focused on sound, and has a sound studio, Cricket Cave, in Thunder Bay.  She collaborates on media projects for independent release and broadcasters.  She’s also a community arts producer.  Her personal practice is focused on listening, embodiment and storytelling. Michelle and Zoe are both members of Zhaaboshkaa Collective, a performance based collective whose focus is on healing settler colonial and trauma through art, ceremony and movement.
  
• To arrange for a screening of the MOTH, contact the filmmakers at: [email protected].

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