This is a listing of films, many of them documentaries, on "Depleted" uranium weapons. I'm posting it because just reading these short synopses taught me things I still didn't know about these horrors.
Did you know that there was evidence of nuclear bombs dropped in Iraq? In 1991, and again in 2003, cancer rates and congenital malformations spiked following American bombings that left radiation levels much higher than DU weapons, already deadly and threatening survivors and their future children. Watch here
Did you know how long uranium weapons (including non-"depleted" nuclear waste) have been used by the United States on foreign populations? Or in how many places?
Did you know that these poisonous weapons have been tested in almost sixty American locations, many near or within towns and cities? (probably not: we are not routinely informed of this madness).
These films will be shown across the country in the next few months, by the International Uranium Film Festival. UFF site
Article at Beyond Nuclear (founded by Dr. Helen Caldecott): "Uranium Film Festival returns to the US in 2024"
THE ATOMIC CINEMATHEQUE OF THE INTERNATIONAL URANIUM FILM FESTIVAL DEPLETED URANIUM WEAPON FILMS (ALPHABETICAL LISTING):
ANATOMY OF A BOMB (ANATOMIA DI UNA BOMBA)
Italy, 2006, 22 min, directors Flaviano Masella, Angelo Saso and Maurizio Torrealta, production Rainews24. English / Italian
The Israeli army denied the use of uranium-based weapons in Lebanon. So, how can people defend themselves from potential uranium-related harm? What precautions will the Unifil troops in the area take, and what kind of testing has been carried out to prevent the risks? The documentary directly covers those questions.
BALENTES - THE BRAVE ONES (I CORAGGIOSI)
Italy/Australia, 2018, Director Lisa Camillo, Documentary, 84 min, Italian with English subtitles
When Sardinian-Australian Lisa Camillo, an anthropologist and film director, returns to Sardinia she finds that large chunks of her homeland are devastated by mysterious bombs. On her journey she uncovers secret NATO bombing ranges. Tests with depleted uranium weapons have been having devastating consequences on the local human and animal population.
Lisa joins the islanders' fight to reclaim their land and livelihoods and, in doing so, she is learning about herself and her roots. "Balentes' is a Sardinian word indicating 'a man of valour', who strives for social justice, defending the weak against the oppressors. Sardinians have always been a warrior people, a fact sometimes forgotten, combatting the many invaders landing on their shores over the ages with courage and valour. Lisa Camillo is a passionate human rights driven filmmaker, anthropologist, presenter and writer. She has directed, produced and wrote award-winning documentaries and films that travelled across the world in several international film festivals. http:// www.balentesfilm.com / Best Documentary Uranium Film Festival 2020
BALKAN CANCER
Macedonia | 2014 | 52' | Documentary. Director: Agim Abdullah | Producer: Press TV. Original Language: Macedonian | Subtitle Language English.
About 20 years ago, during the War against Serbia to "liberate" the Kosovo, Nato used "silver bullets", as the inhabitants of Bosnia used to call the ammunition with depleted uranium. The Serbian army began to withdraw from Kosovo. But the bombs and the consequences of the Nato bombing remained. The depleted uranium started to take its blood tax. People began to die of cancer on a large scale. 15 years after the NATO bombing in Southern and Central Serbia, we are witnessing a real explosion and increase of cancer.
About 20 years ago, during the War against Serbia to "liberate" the Kosovo, Nato used "silver bullets", as the inhabitants of Bosnia used to call the ammunition with depleted uranium. The Serbian army began to withdraw from Kosovo. But the bombs and the consequences of the Nato bombing remained. The depleted uranium started to take its blood tax. People began to die of cancer on a large scale. Today, years after the NATO bombing in Southern and Central Serbia, we are witnessing a real explosion and increase of cancer. Trailer: .youtube.com/watch?v=0L6mGh-u76A
BLOWIN IN THE WIND
Australia, 2005, 62 min, Director: David Bradbury, Documentary, English
Blowin' in the Wind examines the secret treaty that allows the US military to train and test its weaponry on Australian soil. It looks at the impact of recycled uranium weapons and the far-reaching physical and moral effects on every Australian. The film's release has been timely as the government currently moves to approve more uranium mines while arguing the contrary - that by going nuclear we are being both 'safe' and 'green'. The film reveals that Iraqi babies are now being born with major birth defects. Bradbury wonders whether Australians living downwind from the military testing ranges will be next. He argues that we were lied to by the British over the Woomera and Maralinga atomic tests. Can we trust another equally powerful partner in our 'war on terror'? With a cash budget of just $12,000 the film raises pertinent questions which cannot be ignored by the Australian public. The film shocked, angered and surprised large audiences when shown at the Sydney and Brisbane Film Festivals. .frontlinefilms.com.au/videos/blowin.htm
"This is a film that very much wanted to find me. I tried to fend it off, exhausted from making environmental and political films on shoestring budgets that told hard truths to my fellow Australians that they needed to hear but preferred to ignore. In today's climate of self censorship, and public broadcasters who fear that their political masters in Canberra will still further cut their budgets if they support these sorts of films, fellow filmmaker Peter Scott and I pushed on regardless. With a hard cash budget of $12,000 and a beg, borrow or make do philosophy...and a lot of favours, we've pulled together this doco I know you'll never see on 'your ABC'. The picture it paints and the consequences for us all if we don't raise our protest loud and long to this new military alliance with the United States is too devastating to ignore." David Bradbury
DIRECTOR'S BIOGRAPHY: David Bradbury is one of Australia's best known and most successful documen- tary filmmakers. His films have been shown on all the major Australian commercial and public broadcast networks as well as overseas. He has won countless inter- national film festival prizes and been the winner of five AFI awards and two Aca- demy Award nominations (Frontline, which profiled war cameraman Neil Davis, and Chile: Hasta Cuando?, about the military dictatorship of General Pinochet). Bradbury began his career in l972 as radio journalist with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation after graduating from the Australian National University with a BA in Political Science and History. After post
graduate studies in broadcast journalism on a Rotary fellowship in the USA, he worked as a freelance journalist covering the Spring Revolution in Portugal in 1974 as well as the overthrow of the Greek military junta in Athens that same year and covered the final days of the Shah of Iran in l976.
DEADLY DUST
Germany, 2006/2007, 93 Min., Director: Frieder F. Wagner, English
The film accampanies Prof. Guenther, specialist for tropic diseases and epide-miologist, and his expert colleagues as they research on the effects of depleted uranium ammunition used in Iraq, Kosovo, Bosnia, although long since banned ba Hague and Geneve Conventions. The ammunition penetrates steel like a knife slices butter and then explodes into radioactive nanoparticles that disperse: Winds can carrythem clear across our planet. Unnoticed by all in contact with them, they flow through bodies like water through a sponge, leaving behind a path of destruction through the cells they crossed. In their search for contaminated battle fields Prof. Guenther and fellow scientists discover, for example in Iraq, areas, in which radioactive contamination is 30.000 times higher than Earth's natural radiation level.
DIRECTOR'S BIOGRAPHY AND STATEMENT: Frieder F. Wagner was born 1942 in Benesow (CSSR). After the High-School he worked as camera-and director's assistant together with Gerard Vandenberg, Jan de Bont and others. Since 1982, Frieder F. Wagner worked as director of documentary films and realized more than 50 TV-films. In January 2007 he finished with "Deadly Dust" his first Feature Documentary. The film was nomina- ted in 2007 for the best documentary film for "CINEMA FOR PEACE" in Berlin. "The main message of my film is that the deployment of uranium munitions and uranium bombs constitutes a war crime. Because their use leaves behind toxi- cally and radioactiv devastated areas and continue to be toxic and radioactiv for hundred of years afterwards. So the use of these weapons clearly contravenes the Geneve Conventions on the conduct of war. And because George W. Bush and Tony Blair gave the green light for the use of these uranium weapons, these two men should be hauled before an international war crime tribunal."
DEVIL'S WORK
Brazil/USA, 2015, Director Miguel Silveira, Producer J.Charles Banks, Scott Riehs, Hugo Kenzo, Dp John Wakayama Carey, Missy Hernandez. Fiction, 19 min, English.
A troubled 14-years-old boy grows increasingly isolated as he obsesses over the circumstances surrounding his father death his descent puts him on a dismal and potentially violent course that will lead to major truths and even greater questions. His father was a Soldier at the Golf War. He died because he was contaminated with Depleted Uranium. The film was Influenced by Professor Siegwart Horst Gunther the "father" of the anti-uranium-weapons movement and who received the Nuclear-Free Future Award 2007. eo.com/110934948
"It is the best movie about Depleted Uranium Weapons I have seen in my 20 years as activist against these terrible weapons. I saw myself in that boy", says Damacio Lopez, director of the International Depleted Uranium Study Team (IDUST). Trailer: www.miguelsilveirafilm.com/narrative-work
FALLUJAH: A LOST GENERATION?
(LES ENFANTS SACRIFIÉS DE FALLUJA
Irak / France, 2011, 48 min, Documentary, Director: Feurat Alani, Producer: Baozi Production Language: English and French
In 2004, Fallujah in Iraq became the theater of a major showdown between american army and iraq insurgents. But what the american used in this war is secret. What kind of weapons did they drop? For now and since 2005, deformed babies are born. What really happened in Fallujah? Is depleted uranium the cause of the health problem? Film website: http:// www.baoziprod.com/New/?p=3440
Director's Blog: ratalani.blogspot.com.br
FRIENDLY FIRE - BACK TO THE BALKANS
Italien, 2010, 10 min, Italienisch mit englischen Untertiteln, Regie und Produktion: Terra Project Photographier', PHOTOGRAPHERS: Michele Borzoni, Simone Donati, Pietro Paolini, Rocco Rorandelli.
Between 1995 and 1999, military forces of NATO were deployed to re-establish the order in the independent provinces of ex-Jugoslavia. During the conflict the US army utilized weapons enriched with depleted uranium. The italian soldiers, uninformed and unprotected, were exposed to those contaminations and many of them developed with time the so called Balkan syndrome, a series of tumors, the Hodgkin lymphoma being the most common of them. As today at least 250 soldiers are dead and about 2500 are suffering from such syndrome.
Ten years after the conflict, some areas and industrial zones theatre of the bombings have not yet been reclaimed from depleted uranium waste and are a testimony, as invisible monuments, of what the tragic effects of such conflicts can be. Trailer: https:// vimeo.com/11983587 / Info: .terraproject.net/en/collective-works/friendly- fire-balkans
INHERITANCE
UK, 2013, 10 min, Documentary, Director: Margaret Cox, Language: English, Subtitles French, Trailer French: eo.com/120620416
Synopsis: "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. 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.
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: "In German folklore, a kobold was a sprite/ That lived in mines... /It would cause miners' teeth to fall out / And it cursed the miners' families with birth defects/Some miners had believed that/ Mischievous kobolds led them to a metal that / Appeared to be gold or silver but it was actually cobalt...they are reluctant to be exorcised." Margaret Cox
INVISIBLE WAR: DEPLETED URANIUM & THE POLITICS OF RADIATION
France, 2000, 64 min Director: Martin Meissonnier, English
After 1991 in Irak, many children are born with malformation, in the USA, hundred of thousands of soldiers have gulf War disease and their children have malformation too. This film is an inquest on Depleted Uranium featuring 2 whistle lowers inside the Pentagon and US declassfied documents, and interviews with the deputy secretary of state in charge of the Gulf war disease.
Martin Meissonnier has worked as artistic director, journalist, director and composer. In the 1980s, he became the music producer of a number of singers including Fela Kuti, King Sunny Ade, Salif Keita, Ray Lema, Papa Wemba, Manu Dibango. He also produced Khaled's first album. From 1989 to 1994 he directed for la Sept on France 3 and then Arte, a music magazine Megamix in coproduction with Channel 4 UK. Between 1994 and 2000, Martin Meissonnier directed (and composed music for) numerous documentary films for french channels ARTE and Canal+. Since 2003, he is still directing documentary fiction films distributed globally like "Life of Buddha", and "Joan of Arc the Inquest". In 2001, his book about depleted uranium entitled "Uranium appauvri: la guerre invisible" was published by Robert Laffont. In 2010 he has also produced "Rose c 'est Paris" the new film of photographer Bettina Rheims and Serge Bramly featuring Monica Belluci, Naomie Campbell, Lea Seydoux, Charlotte Rampling and Michele Yeoh. Contact: www.campagnepremiere.fr/uranium.html
POISON DUST
USA, 2005, Director Sue Harris, Spanish/English, documentary, 58 min.
Poison Dust is a 2005 American documentary film starring Ramsey Clark, Juan Gonzalez, Rosalie Bertell, Helen Caldicott, Michio Kaku and directed by Sue Harris. The film is a documentary about U.S. soldiers returning from Iraq who had been exposed to radioactive dust from dirty bombs when artillery shells coated with depleted uranium or DU are fired. Many suffer mysterious illnesses and have children with birth defects.
SMALL AND BIG
Serbia, 2022, Director Zelimir Gvardiol, Production: Pradok, Documentary, 33 minutes, Serbian with English subtitles
23 years after the bombing of Serbia in 1999, the dropping of depleted uranium bombs and the destruction of chemical plants by NATO pact, the team of this documentary road movie travels in search of survivors after the ecological genocide, while permanently pollutewater, air and land continue to poison. www.pradok.org.rs/small-and-big/ Film Uranium Film Festival 2023.
THE DEPLETED URANIUM QUESTION
USA/Germany/Brazil, Director Norbert G. Suchanek, Co-Producer Ma'rcia Gomes de Oliveira, 11 min, English
The US used thousands of tons of depleted uranium (DU) ammunition in its wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Balkans and Libya, leaving behind contaminated battlefields. In addition, thousands of soldiers and the local population have been contaminated with depleted uranium dust, which can cause serious health problems and terrible birth defects. But what does the own population in the USA know about depleted uranium?
Best Short
The US developed and tested depleted uranium weapons for decades in New Mexico in Socorro and the surrounding mountains. Uranium dust from test bombings and test shootings have left behind not only contaminated shooting ranges and contaminated water resources. Winds have also blown the uranium dust from the mountains over the city and over large areas.
Two intrepid reporters now visited the town Socorro in New Mexico and want to know, if and what the local population know about these uranium weapons. In front of a supermarket in Socorro they ask the simple question: What is depleted uranium? Starring: U.S. Air Force Veteran Damacio A. Lopez. Born in Socorro, Damacio Lopez has been studying the consequences of the use of depleted uranium weapons for more than 30years.
mfreeway.com/TheDepletedUraniumQuestion
THE THIRD NUCLEAR BOMB, THE VETERAN ?S ACCUSATION (LA TERZA BOMBA BUCLEARE, LE ACCUSE DEL VETERANO)
Italy, 2008, 26 min, director Maurizio Torrealta, production Rainews24,
Consulting the "Seismological International Center on line data archive" we found that in the area indicated by the veteran, a seismic event with a power of 5 kilotons was registered the last day of the conflict. This hint requires a lot of verifications and at RAINEWS24 we want to carry them out involving journalists from other countries, seismological centers that have registered the event, to whom we ask more data about seismic waves and last but not least international organizations that have the task to monitor nuclear activities.
URANIUM 238 - MY STORY
Serbia, 2018, directed by Miodrag Miljkovic, documentary, 22 min, English - Depleted uranium (DU) is obtained by processing mined uranium ore. Most of the radioactive isotopes extracted from the ore are used for nuclear weapons or atomic power plants. What remains is a less radioactive isotopeto 238, depleted uranium. It is almost two times denser than lead and flammable at impact, which makes it extremely effective when penetrating the armour.Miltary experts have in 1970s started to embed DU into the nozzles of conventional nuclear projectiles, granades and bullets. Every projectile contains about 350 grams of DU and that part of the projectile is called a "penetrator".
URÂNIO EM MOVIEMENTO
When a uranium "penetrator" hits a tank, the "penetrator" and the armour partially soften under the pressure. According to Pentagon's literal description, a depleted uranium projectile goes through a tank like "a hot knife through butter". But only one particle of DU in the lymph glands could destroy the whole immune system, says doctor Rodger Coghill.
"The impressive short documentary film sheds light on the damage caused by the NATO bombing of former Yugoslavia with depleted uranium ammunition. While the military is well aware of the dangers of this weapon, civilian casualties are often inadequately helped. Depleted uranium weapons must be forbidden", says Professor Manfred Mohr, spokesman of ICBUW Germany.
URANIUM 238: THE PENTAGON ?S DIRTY POOL (Uranio 238: La Bomba Sucia del Penta'gono)
Costa Rica, 2009, 28 min, direction Pablo Ortega, Producer Isabel Macdonald and San Jose' Quaker Peace Center. Documentary, English, Spanish subtitles
Uranium 238 depicts the hazards that the use of depleted uranium or DU in conventional weapons poses for the health of soldiers and civilians. Through interviews with soldiers, scientists and activists, the documentary explores the health hazards when this radioactive and toxic material is ingested or inhaled by people in the battle fields and shooting ranges. Based in scientific data this video has been used by the International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons (ICBUW) as part of its international campaign to prohibit DU as a military component.
URANIUM 238 - The Pentagon ? Dirty Pool won the Jury Award as the Best Short Film of the First International Uranium Film Festival 2011. Isabel Macdonald (photo) said at the award ceremony in Rio de Janeiro: "Winning this award will help the efforts towards an international treaty banning DU weapons world-wide."
WAR DUST - URANIUM BEIRUT / "Polveri di guerra. Uranio a Beirut"
Directors: Flaviano Masella, Angelo Saso, and Maurizio Torrealta, Italy, 2007, 23 min, Documentary, English
Enriched uranium has been found in the fuel filter of an ambulance in Beirut. Uranium has been found also in one of the analysed urine samples. UNEP too found uranium in all the sites that were examined but they considered that it was natural uranium. Both in their most radioactive form and in their depleted form uranium powders are highly toxic.
.rainews.it/ran24/inchieste/18012007_polvere.asp .youtube.com/watch?v=l03IjHcWFtA
When The Dust Settles
24 May 2013, UK, 2011, 7 min, Director: Campaign Against Depleted Uranium e IKP PAX Christi
Film on the impact of depleted uranium weapons, the current state of international politics and the campaign against them.
