Nuclear Hotseat

A Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Uranium Film Festval, 2023. 
Wow, was I ever surprised - and chuffed! 

Marcîa Gomez de Oliviera (center) with dance students from the Adolpho Bloch school in Rio following their presentation commemorating Brazil's worst radiological accident.

In this second of two reports from the International Uranium Film Festival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with interviews with Festival Founders and Directors Marcîa Gomez de Oliviera and Norbert Suchenek; depleted uranium expert, activist, and academic Damacio Lopez; and audience members, who reflect on what brought them there and why the Festival is so important.  It all leads up to the Awards ceremony... including a special surprise Lifetime Achievement award for Nuclear Hotseat producer/host Libbe HaLevy. 

• Damacio Lopez (l), a long time supporter and friend to the IUFF, in Rio from New Mexico, fills us in not only on his films, but on the early history and even pre-history of the IUFF. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKXnt0EG3s4

One of the films Damacio Lopez contributed to, and a winner of Best Short Documentary at the
inaugural 2011 International Uranium Film Festival.

• Festival Founder and Director Marcîa Gomez de Oliviera explains how the Festival and her work at a Rio public school focused on media and the arts have become entwined since the Festival's inception.

Filming interviews with students at the Adolpho Bloch school in Rio for Miguel Silviera's upcoming film on the International Uranium Film Festival.  That's a bust of Adolpho Bloch, the industrialist who inspired and funded the school, in the background.

Permanent collage mural at the Adolpho Bloch school features posters from previous Uranium Film Festivals.

• Festival Director Norbert Suchanek gives us a glimpse of future editions of the International Uranium Film Festival.

Norbert Suchanek (center) in his element - talking with fans and filmmakers during a break in the Festival schedule. 

Me receiving my honoring tattoo from Urutau Guajajara, an indigenous leader from the Amazon village of Guajajara in the Amazon rainforest of northeast Brazil. (Photo by Norbert Suchanek)

The finished "tattoo."  I might just make it permanent...

At Ipanema Beach during our break. Some days are just harder than others... (Photo by Miguel Silviera)

• SOCORRO - THE CITY OF DEPLETED URANIUM by Norbert G. Suchanek
• News story on the Festival from the Nuclear Free Future Foundation. 
• RADIOACTIVE: The Women of Three Mile Island - Multiple award-winning film by Heidi Hutner
• More to come! 

To contact the Festival about bringing it to your city/state/country, contact Norbert and Marcîa at:

• International Uranium Film Festival
• Rua Monte Alegre 356 / 301
• Santa Teresa, Rio de Janeiro / RJ
• CEP 20240-190
• Brasil
• Email: [email protected]
• Phone:  (0055) (21) 97207 6704

To learn how to submit your film for consideration, go to the website and click on the FILM ENTRY tab, or CLICK HERE.

Chernobyl liquidators - from the film Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes, directed by Directed by James Jones

• Chernoby Truth, World Health Organization Lies Revealed – Alison Katz is a psychologist and sociologist who heads Independent WHO. The international watchdog group draws attention to the World Health Organization’s failure in its duty to protect those populations who are victims of radioactive contamination from Chernobyl and, later, Fukushima.  The group has held a vigil in front of WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, five days a week, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., since April 26, 2007 – the 21st anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.  Given the visibility and popularity of 2021’s HBO series on Chernobyl series – it now ranks as the most seen television program in the world, ever – it seemed the right time to reintroduce this classic Nuclear Hotseat episode to an audience that either has not yet heard it, or wishes to have their understanding of Chernobyl’s devastating impacts refreshed. Originally recorded for Nuclear Hotseat #118, September 17, 2013, the material covered is still very relevant and important.

Snapshots from Independent W.H.O.'s vigil in front of the World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. It was held in front of WHO headquarters in Geneva from 26 April 2007 until 26 April 2017. Every working day, between 8am and 6pm, a relay of members of the “Independent W.H.O. – Health and Nuclear” collective demanded that WHO should assume its responsibilities, independently of the nuclear establishment.

• Manual for Survival: A Chernobyl Guide to the Future by Kate Brown. Superb accounting of the health devastation of Chernobyl, constructed from over three years of investigation into medical archives in eastern Europe. 
• Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higgenbotham.  NOTE: the author does a superb job reconstructing the horrors of Chernobyl, but then goes full-on pro-nuke during the final chapter, citing statistics from only the pro-nuclear WHO, IAEA, and UNSCEAR. I recommend that you skip that chapter and read the rest of the book for its narrative of nuclear lies, miscalculations, cover-ups, and destruction of people and the environment. In particular, the description of the physical devastation of high level radiation exposure is comparable to the visuals provided in the HBO series.)

International Uranium Film Festival Founders/Directors Marcia Gomes de Oliviera and Norbert Suchanek with Nuclear Hotseat's Libbe HaLevy at the opening of the 2023 Festival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Nuclear Hotseat producer/host Libbe HaLevy traveled to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to cover the 12 th annual International Uranium Film Festival.  The IUFF is the only place on earth that presents films focused solely on issues of the entire nuclear fuel chain, from uranium mining to reactors to bombs to nowhere to safely store the highly radioactive waste that results for the necessary quarter of a million years.  But these film stories from around the world are told in human terms - with artistry, a quirky sense of humor when possible, and unabashed emotional responses to the terrible radiation truths that have been forced upon the innocent.

The IUFF was founded in 2011 by Norbert Suchanek and Marcia Gomes de Oliveira. It’s based in Brazil, in Rio de Janeiro, but has traveled around the world, sharing atomic films that would most likely not be seen without the festival to present them and draw attention to their important, thought-provoking messages.

During today’s Nuclear Hotseat,  you’ll hear from one of the founders of the festival and two of the filmmakers who are here representing multiple countries, as well as a brief rundown on a few of the films that have screened so far:

• Norbert Suchanek was born in Germany and is an investigative, environmental, human rights and science journalist, book author, photographer and award-winning documentary filmmaker. Since 2006 he has worked as foreign correspondent and filmmaker in Rio de Janeiro.  With Marcia Gomes de Oliveira, he is Founder and Director of the Int’l Uranium Film Festival. 
  I spoke with Norbert Suchanek on Monday, May 22, 2023.

IUFF Founder/Director Norbert Suchenek

• Julian Vogel, whose film MISSION: (ICBM) will be screened next next Saturday, May 27. It’s a Sweden/Korea/Scotland production, which almost makes it an international film festival production all by itself. In it, 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. 
  I spoke with Julian Vogel on Sunday, May 21, 2023.

Swedish-born, currently living in Scotland, filmmaker Julian Vogel .

• Miguel Silveira is a Brazilian-American independent filmmaker, arts educator and Assistant Professor at the School of Communication of the Loyola University in Chicago.  Born in Rio de Janeiro, Miguel is director of award-winning short films like Namibia Brazil, Rooftop Wars, and the film to be screened at the IUFF, Devil’s Work.  Devil's Work tells the story of a fourteen-year-old boy named Eugene, who has to deal with an absolutely traumatic event - the death of his father - and decides to investigate the scientific causes related to it. The film becomes a psychological-thriller about Eugene's search for the truth. The issue of depleted uranium, rarely portrayed in films, is central to the structure of the film.
  I spoke with Miguel Silveira on Monday, May 22, 2023

Miguel Silviera, interpreting my welcoming speech into Portuguese at the opening night of the IUFF.

Mealtime had me prepping for my interview with filmmaker Julian Vogel.

Prepping notes for my opening night welcome speech.

The happy crew, including Miguel Silviera's film crew, which is shooting a film on this year's IUFF.

• International Uranium Film Festival
• DOWNWIND - Nuclear Hotseat #604 - Interview with directors Mark Shapiro.
• More to come...

NOTE: Keystone photo is of a baby born after the mother's exposure to depleted uranium from DU weapons.  Published in the free PDF,  DEPLETED URANIUM: A Scientific Approach to the Hazards of Military Use of Depleted Uranium by Prof. Dr. Massimo Zucchetti.  Yes, it's upsetting - and that's the point in responding to something as heinous as the use of DU weaponry.  This is a very upsetting truth.

DU ammunition for eternal war on human DNA come in sizes for all yer  weapons. 

Nuclear icon Dr. Helen Caldicott is an Australian physician, author, and for six decades has been one of the world’s most important anti-nuclear advocates. She revived or founded several associations, including Physicians for Social Responsibility and International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. Caldicott is dedicated to opposing the use of nuclear power, depleted uranium munitions, nuclear weapons, nuclear weapons proliferation, and military action in general. Nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Nobel-winner Linus Pauling, she is at the root of much of the anti-nuclear work being done today.

We spoke on Sunday, May 14, 2023.

• Free PDF -  DEPLETED URANIUM:  A scientific approach to the hazards of military use of depleted uranium by Prof. Dr. Massimo Zucchetti
• Dr. Helen Caldicott's website.
• Nuclear Hotseat #568 - Dr. Caldicott tells the full story of meeting with President Reagan and how she almost got him and Mikhail Gorbachev to get rid of nuclear weapons.
• If You Love This Planet - Academy Award-winning film featuring Dr. Caldicott.  It's available on her website, HelenCaldicott.com, or by clicking the Youtube link below:

https://youtu.be/7FjgBBQFmGs

If You Love This Planet - the Academy Award-winning documentary featuring Dr. Caldicott

Civilian evacuations around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant suggest imminent conflict, which could put the nuclear plant in even greater peril.

AI in charge of nuke launches?  What could go wrong...?

• A Disaster Waiting to Happen: Safety at San Onofre Nuclear Waste Site - webinar
• Fukushima's Fishng Industry
• U.S. Produces More Power From Wind And Solar Than Nuclear For First Time
• Down to Earth: The path to radically lower emissions tucked away inside the devastating IPCC report

Atomic bomb test in French Polynesia - with one A-bomb, there goes paradise... 

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has today approved the New Mexico nuclear waste "interim" storage facility.  Could a new state law and federal court challenges prevent the project from going forward?  Kevin Kamps, Waste Control Specialist for Beyond Nuclear, gives us an update. 

• Dennis Riches has taught English and history at various universities in Japan since 1986. The Chernobyl disaster that year sparked his interest in the hazards of nuclear technologies, and he became aware of the anti-nuclear movement in Japan that was gaining strength at that time. The meltdowns at Fukushima-Daiichi in 2011 provoked him into writing a blog about nuclear issues, which reached a large audience. In 2018, several of the blog posts were published as a free book (print or pdf) entitled: Sayonara Nukes: The Case for Abolishing Nuclear Weapons and Nuclear Energy. He covers a-bomb testing, France's environmental racism in Polynesia, and the lack of reparations for the damage to the Polynesian people and their homelands.
  
  I spoke with Dennis Riches on May 5, 2023.
  
  LINK to free PDF of Sayonara Nukes: The Case for Abolishing Nuclear Weapons and Nuclear Energy.
  
  The book Dennis mentioned in the interview is America’s Last President: What the World Lost When It Lost John F. Kennedy (2022) by Monika Wiesak.  https://a.co/d/cRhnQMD
  
• Kevin Hester was born in New Zealand and became involved in the early 1980’s in that country’s environmental movement, which was heavily influenced by the anti-nuclear activities that resulted in having NZ declared nuclear-free.  Here, he talks about his witnessing the immediate aftermath of the French Secret Service's bombing that destroyed the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior. This is an excerpt from Nuclear Hotseat #233 from December 9, 2015.

The Rainbow Warrior in Marsden Wharf in Auckland Harbour after the bombing by French secret service agents. 
(Photo: Greenpeace)

Film director, Oliver Stone, thinks new nuclear is a game changer. But he’s playing on the wrong team.

Aaaaah, Florida - where the streets are paved with... WTF?!?!???

• Former Nuclear Leaders:  Say "NO" to New Reactors
• Nuclear Power Plants Under Attack: The Legacy of Zaporizhzhia