nuclear-news

“Nuclear Nation,” and “No Man’s Zone” – films show the human horror of Fukushima nuclear disaster

Berlin Film Festival: 3 documentaries on Japan nuclear disaster LA Times,  Susan Stone in Berlin, February 10, 2012 |  Less than a year after the massive earthquake and tsunami in Japan devastated whole towns and crippled the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, causing a radioactive disaster, filmic portraits at the Berlin International Film Festival are presenting the human fallout.

Three documentaries appearing at the Berlinale provide sort of post-nuclear ghost stories — landscapes and people haunted by the aftermath of the nuclear accident and residual radiation.

Atsushi Funahashi’s “Nuclear Nation,” which was to debut Friday night in a world premiere, documents life in exile for the residents of Futaba, a town that prospered and then all but perished, its rise and fall tightly woven together with the Fukushima nuclear plant.
National subsidies and major tax breaks came to Futaba starting in the 1960s, compensation for the presence of the plant. Along with jobs for citizens, the plant brought money for a new community center, library and sports facilities.

Funahashi’s film shows that all lies empty now, beyond the ornate city gates reading “Atomic energy makes our town and society prosperous” — the entire city has been designated as an exclusion zone, and will be uninhabitable for years. ….
Toshi Fujiwara’s “No Man’s Zone” screens Sunday, and aspires to more artiness, featuring a voice-over by Armenian Canadian actress Arsinée Khanjian. Fujiwara hopes to show the beauty in the tainted landscape, while leveling a critique of the disaster and how it was handled. …

The documentaries are screening just days after a fresh reminder of the ongoing problems at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. On Feb. 8,
workers battled rising temperatures in one of the plant’s reactors, raising new questions about the stability of the facility.

The films should have a special resonance in Berlin, where anti-nuclear sentiment has been strong for years, partly due to
secrecy around and problems following the Chernobyl accident in Ukraine in 1986.  After the disaster at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear
power plant in March 2011, the German government decided to phase out all nuclear energy by 2022, and started by immediately shutting several plants.

February 11, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Resources -audiovicual