at  M.A.D.E. Museum of Australian Democracy at Eureka, Ballarat

All screenings are free, but due to limited capacity bookings are required.

Backs to the Blast: An Australian Nuclear Story

Dir. Harry Bardwell
52 min, Australia 1981
A documentary history of the uranium and nuclear industry in South Australia from 1910 to 1980. Incorporates rare archival footage and contemporary interviews with workers, scientists and politicians, presenting an analysis of the effects of uranium and its products. Provides a detailed examination of the uranium mine at Radium Hill, the uranium oxide refinery at Port Pirie and the British atomic weapons test site at Maralinga.

Silent Storm

Dir. Peter Butt
52 min, Australia 2003
Set against a backdrop of the Cold War, the saga follows scientist Hedley Marston’s attempt to blow the whistle on radioactive fallout from the British atomic tests in Australia. His claims that cities and grazing lands were contaminated and that Strontium 90 was in the milk supply were disputed, but the government’s own bone surveys proved his assertion right.

Sunday, 15 January 2017, 1 pm

Half Life: A Parable for the Nuclear Age

Dir. Dennis O’Rourke
84 min, Australia 1985
Between 1946 and 1958 the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission exploded at least 66 nuclear devices in the Marshall Islands, contaminating them for centuries to come. This film is about the devastating effects of radiation on the islanders. In the course of his investigations, the filmmaker found that the official view of the tests was unsustainable.
Won the Peace Film Award in 1986 at the Berlin International Film Festival.

Nobody told us anything

Dir. Charles Stewart
96 min, United Kingdom 2014
Between 1952 and 1967, in the largest Tri-Service operation since the D-Day landings, over 20,000 servicemen participated in British Nuclear Weapons Tests. The 2011 British Nuclear Test Veterans Health Needs Audit shows that a daunting shadow still hangs over the Veterans. This documentary tells that story in archive footage and candid interviews with the survivors and their children.

Australian Atomic Confessions (with film maker Kathy Aigner)

Dir. Gregory K. Young
50 min, Australia 2005
Documentary about the compelling story of the 12 British atomic bomb tests in the 1950s, discussed by Aboriginal elders, veterans, experts and the premier of South Australia. With the building of a new 500 million dollar nuclear reactor in a Sydney suburb, the expansion of more multi-national uranium mines and the associated poisoning of the Great Artesian Basin, reflecting about nuclear energy uses is now as important as ever.