Uranium Film Festival ended with Atomic Bombs on the Planet Earth

With unexpected surprises that added glamour to the First International Uranium Film Festival of Rio de Janeiro which ended Saturday night (28th of May 2011) in the historical Manson "Laurinda Santos Lobo". The filmmakers and guests were treated to a feast of food and traditional drinks, like Cacha a Magnifica and Caiprinhas of Rio de Janeiro.

From 34 international productions surrounding the nuclear fuel chain and radioactive risks four winners were selected.

The best short film of this first International Uranium Film Festival - selected by the Jury - was a Costa Rican production of director Pablo Ortega of the University of Costa Rica: Uranio 238: La Bomba Sucia del Pent gono, Uranium 238: The Pentagon's Dirty Pool.

"In my 25 years as an anti-DU activist this experience has been a highlight in the exposure of a very serious problem that faces mankind today: The use of radioactive waste as a military weapon", says Damacio A. Lopez, the executive director of the International Depleted Uranium Study Team (IDUST) who represented the film together with Isabel Macdonald from the San Jos Quaker Peace Centre of Costa Rica.

Isabel Macdonald: "Winning this award will help the efforts towards an international treaty banning DU weapons world-wide."

The best feature film - selected by the jury - was a new production by Director Michael Madsen from Denmark "Into Eternity". An impressive film which deals with the philosophical questions of the issues concerning the permanent storage of high-level nuclear waste. The film brings the audience down thousands of meters into a rock formation in the countryside of Finland where the construction of the first high-level nuclear waste storage facility is been built.

The audience award for the best short film were given to: "C sio 137. O brilho da morte", directed by Luiz Eduardo Jorge of Brazil. His documentary shows the events that transpired in a real live tragedy about the release of
Caesium-137 into a populated area in 1987 in the city of Goi nia, Brazil.
This was the worst radioactive accident in Latin America, which cost the lives of many people and the health of hundreds or possibly thousands of survivors.

"C sio 137. O brilho da morte" was produced by Laura Pires as well as the winner of the audience award for the best movie: "C sio 137. O pesadelo de Goi nia". Director Roberto Pires contracted famous Brazilian actors for this important and first ever made film of this nuclear accident in central Brazil. The script of "C sio 137. O pesadelo de Goi nia" is based on statements by the victims and medical personal attending the victims, taken by Roberto Pires at the time of the accident, who himself some years later died from radiation exposure.

A big surprise for the invited guests was the appearance of three representatives of the indigenous peoples of Brazil who gave a musical performance and a prayer to the Uranium Film Festival and its guests. Chief Alfonso Apurina from the Amazon state Acre and his two companions from other indigenous peoples were invited by the festival organizers in respect of their traditional land rights to Brazil and in respect to their struggle to preserve the Old Indigenous Museum of Rio de Janeiro, that is in danger because of construction of projects to accommodate the Olympic Games.

Indigenous people from all over Brazil have been occupying the abandoned first "Museo do Indio" of Brazil beside the famous Maracan Football stadium since 2005,with the intention of creating their own cultural centre for all the indigenous peoples of Latin America. This "Museo do Indio" was deeded to the indigenous people of Brazil by its creator Darcy Ribeiro in 1954, but left abandoned since 1972. Since 2010, these indigenous people have been at risk of being expelled from the building and the land it stands on that rightfully belongs to them. And they have no intentions of giving this stronghold to make way for a shopping center as part of the Olympic Games project.

The First International Uranium Film Festival and its Award Ceremony ended with another, a real "bombastic" surprise. "Atomic Bombs on the Planet Earth", the newest production of the famous film director Peter Greenaway was shown to the selected audience. "We received that fantastic short film of Greenaway today", said Festival director Norbert G. Suchanek. "We have decided that Atomic Bombs on Planet Earth will be the Opening Film of the 2nd International Uranium Film Festival May 2012 in Rio de Janeiro!"