Aimed at raising public awareness about issues related to nuclear power, the No Nukes Film Festival (核電影) returns for a second time with a lineup of 13 documentary films from Japan, France, Australia, Germany, South Korea and Taiwan.
Organized by Green Citizens’ Action Alliance (綠色公民行動聯盟), a NGO and environmental advocacy group, the event opens today and runs through Aug. 2 at Spot — Huashan (光點華山電影館), Taipei Contemporary Art Center (台北當代藝術中心) and LUX Cinema (樂聲影城).
Most of the films explore topics that politicians typically avoid talking about. From Japan, Nuclear Nation I and II closely follows the displaced residents of Futaba town, Fukushima, which remains highly contaminated after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami caused the nuclear disaster.
Photo courtesy of No Nukes Film Festival
In Long Live France, the dire consequences of the nearly 200 nuclear tests conducted by France in French Polynesia between 1966 and 1996 is revealed through the life on a small island that might collapse because of the underground tests. Issues surrounding uranium mining and the nuclear industry are tackled from different perspectives in several films from Australia and Germany.
Apart from the film screenings, organizers have arranged question-and-answer sessions and lectures to further discuss issues related to nuclear power. Participating filmmakers, activists and other professionals include Atsushi Funahashi, director of Nuclear Nation I and II, and Marcus Atkinson from the Anti-Nuclear Alliance of Western Australia.
Since all screenings and activities are free, the NGO is currently gathering funding through crowdfunding platform FlyingV so that it will have resources to bring the programs to places beyond Taipei. For more information, go to the event’s Chinese-language Web site: zeronuke.gcaa.org.tw.
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