The Secret Cinema presents
MEGATON MOVIES: FILMS ABOUT THE ATOMIC BOMB
There will be one complete program at 8:00 pm. Admission is free (as are all programs in tThe Rotunda's monthly "Bright Bulb Screening Series").
As always -- still -- Secret Cinema programs are shown using 16mm (not video, not digital) film projected on a giant screen.
Just a few highlights of MEGATON MOVIES… are:
SURVIVAL UNDER ATOMIC ATTACK (1951) - "Let us face, without panic, the reality of our time -- the fact that atom bombs may someday be dropped on our cities." Castle Films, which normally supplied cartoons and travel subjects to school and church 16mm projectors, distributed this sobering instructional film (and several similar titles) in cooperation with the Federal Civil Defense Administration. It served as a sort of primer on how to beat the bomb, through careful avoidance of flying glass, collapsing buildings and radioactive fallout. Narrated by no less than esteemed journalist Edward R. Murrow, it used data collected by studying the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
OPERATION CROSSROADS (1946) - Operation Crossroads was a series of nuclear weapons tests conducted by the United States at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands in 1946. The purpose of the operation was to investigate the effect of nuclear weapons on naval warships. They were the first tests to be publicly announced beforehand and observed by an invited audience, which included a large press corps. The Navy convinced 167 island dwellers to relocate, "for the good of mankind." This color film shows the careful photographic documentation that was recorded of two different blasts, but not of radiation effects which may have impacted the thousands of Navy personnel participating in the test and cleanup.
THE WAR GAME (1965, Dir: Peter Watkins) - This mockumentary featurette -- an early example of that genre -- depicts, using hand-held camera and a non-professional cast, what could happen if nuclear war was directed against England. The resulting chaos and carnage reveal that adequate preparation against such calamity is impossible. THE WAR GAME was commissioned by the BBC for television broadcast, but when completed, the network decided that Watkins' film was "judged to be…too horrifying for the medium of broadcasting." It later was distributed theatrically and shown in film festivals, to great acclaim, and was awarded the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature of 1966 (despite being neither documentary nor feature). Truly one of the scariest films ever shown by Secret Cinema; perhaps we should have saved it for Halloween.
Plus much more!
SECRET CINEMA WEBSITE: https://www.thesecretcinema.com
On Thursday, March 9, the Secret Cinema will present MEGATON MOVIES: FILMS ABOUT THE ATOMIC BOMB, a special program featuring fascinating -- and still frightening -- looks at our nuclear past…and present. With the current warming up of the Cold War with Russia, these vivid documents from the 1940s, 50s and 60s are sadly as relevant as ever. The screening will include rare newsreels, government films and an Oscar-winning pseudo-documentary.
There will be one complete program at 8:00 pm. Admission is free (as are all programs in tThe Rotunda's monthly "Bright Bulb Screening Series").
As always -- still -- Secret Cinema programs are shown using 16mm (not video, not digital) film projected on a giant screen.
Just a few highlights of MEGATON MOVIES… are:
SURVIVAL UNDER ATOMIC ATTACK (1951) - "Let us face, without panic, the reality of our time -- the fact that atom bombs may someday be dropped on our cities." Castle Films, which normally supplied cartoons and travel subjects to school and church 16mm projectors, distributed this sobering instructional film (and several similar titles) in cooperation with the Federal Civil Defense Administration. It served as a sort of primer on how to beat the bomb, through careful avoidance of flying glass, collapsing buildings and radioactive fallout. Narrated by no less than esteemed journalist Edward R. Murrow, it used data collected by studying the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
OPERATION CROSSROADS (1946) - Operation Crossroads was a series of nuclear weapons tests conducted by the United States at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands in 1946. The purpose of the operation was to investigate the effect of nuclear weapons on naval warships. They were the first tests to be publicly announced beforehand and observed by an invited audience, which included a large press corps. The Navy convinced 167 island dwellers to relocate, "for the good of mankind." This color film shows the careful photographic documentation that was recorded of two different blasts, but not of radiation effects which may have impacted the thousands of Navy personnel participating in the test and cleanup.
THE WAR GAME (1965, Dir: Peter Watkins) - This mockumentary featurette -- an early example of that genre -- depicts, using hand-held camera and a non-professional cast, what could happen if nuclear war was directed against England. The resulting chaos and carnage reveal that adequate preparation against such calamity is impossible. THE WAR GAME was commissioned by the BBC for television broadcast, but when completed, the network decided that Watkins' film was "judged to be…too horrifying for the medium of broadcasting." It later was distributed theatrically and shown in film festivals, to great acclaim, and was awarded the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature of 1966 (despite being neither documentary nor feature). Truly one of the scariest films ever shown by Secret Cinema; perhaps we should have saved it for Halloween.
Plus much more!
SECRET CINEMA WEBSITE: https://www.thesecretcinema.com
Admission is FREE