Festival Program

5:30 pm - ATOMIC BAMBOOZLE: THE FALSE PROMISE OF A NUCLEAR  RENAISSANCE

USA, 2023, Director Jan Haaken,

Documentary, 47 minutes

As pressure mounts in the US to meet net zero carbon goals, the nuclear power industry makes its case for a nuclear “ renaissance” to solve the climate crisis. In place of the highly costly reactors that have been shut down across many regions of the country, investors began in the early 21st century to promote small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) as a technological solution.

ATOMIC BAMBOOZLE follows anti-nuclear activist Lloyd Marbet and attorneys Greg Kafoury and Lauren Goldberg as they draw lessons from the decades-long fight to shut down the Trojan Nuclear Power plant in Oregon and expose current campaigns to revive the industry. Climate activist Cathy Sampson-Kruse (Waluulapum member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation) points to the buried legacy of atomic weapons production and nuclear power generation at Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington State and to its devastating impacts on tribal communities. University of British Columbia professor M. V. Ramana, a physicist and internationally recognized scholar on nuclear power, traces the history of nuclear power generation from the 1950s to the present and takes up four main problems  costs, accidents, waste and proliferation-and shows how the industry continues to deny or disavow these persisting problems in themuch heralded generation of ”new nuclear.” Director Jan Haaken, a psychologist, brings to this history of atomic bamboozling an attentiveness to the psychological ploys of the industry. https://www.atomicbamboozle.com

Jan Haaken is professor emeritus of psychology at Portland State University, a clinical psychologist, and documentar filmmaker. From refugee camps, war zones and abortion clinics to drag bars, dairy farms and hip-hop clubs, her documentary films focus on people carrying out stressful jobs on the social margins and in liminal spaces.

MAKING WAVES: THE REBIRTH OF THE GOLDEN RULE

Documentary, 25 minutes

Making Waves: The Rebirth of the Golden Rule - This 25 minute documentary covers the history of the Golden Rule historic anti-nuclear peace boat from her first voyage in 1958 through restoration from 2010 to 2015 and her current voyages. The film maker, James “Seamus” Knight of Caneyhead Productions produced the film during the San Diego Fleet Week protest on October 14, 2017 in conjunction with Veterans For Peace, San Diego chapter. https://vfpgoldenruleproject.org/making-waves/

Q & A / Panel

8:00 pm - CLOSING CEREMONY

Artesian Band