Portugal 2019 | International Uranium Film Festival

PROGRAM:

International Uranium Film Festival September 13 - 15, 2019 in Portugal, Urgeiriça (Nelas), Viseu e Mangualde.

URGEIRIÇA FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2019

5:30 pm - Guests Reception / Opening Ceremony
6:30 pm - Presentation of a research project by the students of the Polytechnic Institute of Visei about the future Mineiro da Urgeiriça museum.
8:30 pm - Movie Session - Location: Minas da Urgeiriça Staff House

O MAL DA MINA (Evil of the Mine)

Portugal, 2011, Directed by Mafalda Gameiro, Portuguese Radio Television Production - R.T.P, reportage, Portuguese, 29 min - Uranium exploration in Portugal: report that portrays the serious health problem of the population of Urgeiriça and the entire Viseu area. At issue are numerous cases of people who fell ill and others who died of cancer. Mafalda Gameiro's "O Mal da Mina" was distinguished with the Novartis journalism award. With presence of Mafalda Gameiro, Journalist of TV R.T.P.

YELLOW CAKE. DIRT BEHIND URANIUM (SHORT VERSION)

Germany, 2010/2014, Direction Joachim Tschirner, documentary, English, Portuguese subtitles, 35 min - The Wismut mine in East Germany was the third largest uranium mine in the world. With German reunification, the government closed the mine and began to “clean up” this radioactive heritage. It was the first attempt in the world to treat a closed uranium mine and its tialings, minimizing the environmental impacts of these mountains and lakes full of radioactive and toxic waste. www.yellowcake-derfilm.de

Debate: “The effects of radioactivity on uranium mining workers and the surrounding population”. Round Table with: Ana Teresa - Professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Coimbra, Carlos Diogo Cortes - President of the Regional Section of the Centro da Ordem dos Médicos, João Pedro Pimentel - Department of Public Health at ARSC.

VISEU - SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2019

9:00 am - Opening - Mayor of Viseu. Venue: Auditorium of the Superior School of Technology
9:30 am - Movie Session

CEM ANOS DA URGEIRIÇA/ ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF URGEIRIÇA

UK/Portugal, 2016, Director Ramsay Cameron, Producer Molitor Productions, documentary, English/Portuguese, German subtitles 52 min - The film tells the story of the 100 year history of the Minas da Urgeiriça in Northern Portugal. The mine was one of the earliest uranium mines and was linked directly to Marie Curie, during the Second World War the British and American governments recognized its strategic importance and invested heavily in it to provide nuclear fuel for the Cold War. Later the mine was returned to Portuguese ownership and the dictator Salazar dreamt of creating a Portuguese nuclear industry, eventually it was the source of the uranium that Saddam Hussein procured for his attempt to build a nuclear reactor. Currently the site of the mine is being rehabilitated and decontaminated but it is only recently that the campaign for compensation for victims of radioactivity has achieved success. With presence of James Ramsay Cameron.

Presentation, slides, on mining activity after 1962, Former Uranium Mine Workers Association (ATMU)

Debate: “The effects of the lack of security in uranium mining in Portugal and its consequences”. Round Table with Antonio Minhoto, ATMU President and film director Cameron

2:30 pm - Movie Session

YELLOWCAKE

USA, 2009, Directed by Brock Williams, documentary, English with Portuguese subtitles, 10 min - From uranium mining to nuclear fuel production, this short film reports on contamination, high water consumption, toxic and radioactive waste production, health impacts and CO2 emissions that are caused by the nuclear fuel cycle. Each phase has its own devastating impact on environment and human population. This film takes a deeper look at facts that are often overlooked from the beginning to the end of the nuclear fuel production.

BUDA CHORA EM JADUGODA (BUDDHA WEEPS IN JADUGODA)

India, 1999, Directed by Shri Prakash. Documentary, English with Portuguese subtitles, 52 min - For decades India is mining uranium In Jadugoda, populated by the indigenous Adivasi. The film documents the devastating effects of uranium mining on the local population. Over the past 30 years, radioactive waste has been dumped into the environment and the rice fields of the Adivasi. The government's uranium exploration agency did nothing to protect the lives of the people and the environment . Unsafe uranium exploration has resulted in excessive radiation, causing genetic mutations and slow death. Medical reports reveal that the impact of radiation on the indigenous population is being devastating.

YELLOW CAKE. THE DIRT BEHIND URANIUM (A SUJEIRA POR DETRÁS DO URÂNIO)

Germany, 2010/2014, Directed by Joachim Tschirner, documentary, English, Portuguese subtitles, 35 min (Short Version) - The world's third largest uranium mine was located in the eastern German provinces of Saxony and Thuringia. Controlled by the USSR the mine was named Wismut to cover up the true purpose. Until 1990, Wismut supplied 220,000 tons of uranium to the Soviet Union. In absolute terms, this amount was sufficient to produce 32,000 Hiroshima bombs. After the reunification Germany closed the mine ate once, because of the negative impacts on environment and local poplulation. The main focus of the movie is the clean-up process of the Wismut's radioactive heritage. It was the first attempt in the world to properly treat a closed uranium mine and its tailings. Until today, Germany has spent more than six billion Euros on this decommissioning process..www.yellowcake-derfilm.de

Debate: The effects of uranium mining on the environment. Round Table with Nuno Sequeira, Vice President of QUERCUS and Pedro Baila Antunes, Professor at the Polytechnic Institute of Viseu and Alphonse Kelecom, Professor of the Institute's Radiometry and Radiometry Laboratory of Biology of the Fluminense Federal University.

5:30 pm - Missing Atomic Bombs in Spain

OPERACIÓN FLECHA ROTA. ACCIDENTE NUCLEAR EN PALOMARES (BROKEN ARROW. NUCLEAR ACCIDENT IN PALOMARES)

Spain, 2007, Documentary, Direction Jose Herrera Plaza. Production: Antonio Sánchez Picón. Audio in Spanish and English, Portuguese subtitles, 96 min - Cold War: Every day, US B-52 planes, armed with nuclear bombs, are heading for the Soviet Union to serve a possible counter-strike. Almost exactly 50 years ago, on January 17, 1966, a B-52 collides over the South of Spain near Palomares in Almería with another US military plane. The planes explode and four hydrogen bombs fell from the sky - with 5000-fold explosive power than the A-bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. Two of the bombs burst and contaminate the tomato-growing region with radioactive and toxic plutonium. One of the H-bombs fells in the sea and will be found only after weeks. Until today the radioactive contamination of the tourist region of Palomares is downplayed. Jose Herrera Plaza's movie is a hot topic. Special Recognition Award of the Uranium Film Festival 2016. With the presence of film director José Herrera Plaza from Palomares.

Debate: “The importance of citizenship in defense of labor, social and environmental rights”. Round Table with an ATMU Ex-Uranium miners and José Manuel Mendes, Professor at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Coimbra.

9:00 pm - Celebration dinner among the participants in Urgeiriça. Theatrical and musical event by the group ACERT - Tondela.

MANGUALDE - SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2019

9:00 am - Opening - Mayor of Mangualde. Venue: Municipal Library Auditorium
9:30 am - Movie Session

Film presentation about the uranium mine recovery work (clean-up) in Portugal

Mining Development Company (EDM)

O RISCO DE UM BRUMADINHO RADIOATIVO (THE RISK OF A RADIOACTIVE BRUMADINHO IN BRAZIL)

Brazil, 2019, Uranium Film Festival Production, Portuguese, 10 min - A collage of recent reports on Brazil's first uranium mine in Poços de Caldas, Minas Gerais, and its radioactive tailings dam. Is the dam safe or is there an imminent risk of an radioactive Brumadinho? The Brumadinho dam disaster occurred on 25 January 2019 when a tailings dam an iron ore mine near Brumadinho in Minas Gerais broke. Just a few years earlier, 2015 broke a tailings dam near Mariana in Minas Gerasis and practically destroyed the Rio Doce of Southeastern Brazil.

CIDADE RADIOATIVA (RADIOACTIVE CITY)

Brazil, 2017, Direction Marcello Marques, Production Elisângela Guanaíra, Portuguese, 26 min - The city of Caetité, 650 kilometers east from Salvador (BA) is home of one of the largest reserves of uranium in the world, a mineral that feeds Brazil's Angra 1 and Angra 2 nuclear power plants and is considered highly hazardous when concentrated. Uranium mining started here in 2000. “The Environmentalist” went to the place to listen to the population. People are concerned about water quality in the region, water that could have been contaminated by uranium.

HALF LIFE: THE STORY OF AMERICA’S LAST URANIUM MILL (MEIA VIDA: A HISTÓRIA DO ÚLTIMO MOINHO DE URÂNIO DA AMÉRICA)

USA, 2016, Director: Justin Clifton, Documentary, English, 12 min - In Southeastern Utah, not far from many of America’s famed national parks, lies America’s last remaining uranium mill. After more than 36 years in operation, the leaders of the nearby Ute Mountain Ute Tribe’s White Mesa community worry that lax regulations and aging infrastructure are putting their water supply, and their way of life, at risk. The 12-minute film, “Half Life”, is designed to draw attention to ongoing contamination and regulatory failures at the White Mesa Mill, and to the mill’s role as a keystone in the North American uranium industry. The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Uranium Watch, and the Grand Canyon Trust have all used the legal and regulatory process, including the Trust’s ongoing citizen suit in federal district court, to exert pressure on the mill owners and regulators. However, the White Mesa Mill has never received large-scale public attention; indeed, even local residents are largely unaware that the mill receives some of the most toxic wastes (ISL and alternate feed) in North America as well as ore mined across the Colorado Plateau. „Half Life” is more than a film about the White Mesa Mill in Southern Utah, it is a call to action to become informed on our energy issues in the United States and demand that our clean air and water be preserved. https://www.grandcanyontrust.org/half-life-story-americas-last-uranium-m...

YELLOW CAKE. A SUJEIRA POR DETRÁS DO URÂNIO (THE DIRT BEHIND URANIUM)

Germany, 2010/2014, Directed by Joachim Tschirner, documentary, English, Portuguese subtitles, 35 min (short version) - The world's third largest uranium mine was located in the eastern German provinces of Saxony and Thuringia. Controlled by the USSR the mine was named Wismut to cover up the true purpose. Until 1990, Wismut supplied 220,000 tons of uranium to the Soviet Union. In absolute terms, this amount was sufficient to produce 32,000 Hiroshima bombs. After the reunification Germany closed the mine ate once, because of the negative impacts on environment and local poplulation. The main focus of the movie is the clean-up process of the Wismut's radioactive heritage. It was the first attempt in the world to properly treat a closed uranium mine and its tailings. Until today Germany has spent more than six billion euros on this decommissioning process.

12:30 pm - Lunch
02:00 pm - EDM guided technical visits to Cunha Baixa Mine (Decommissioned) and Quinta do Bispo Mine (Clean-up).

URGEIRIÇA - SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2019

5:30 pm - Movie Session

DECISÃO PARA O FUTURO (CHEESE INSTEAD OF URANIUM - DECISION FOR THE FUTURE)

Brazil, Germany, 2019, Directed by Norbert G. Suchanek, Production Márcia Gomes de Oliveira, documentary, Portuguese, 20 min - Nisa, a beautiful village of the Alentejo in Portugal. Just in front of mediaval walls of Nisa lies is a large uranium deposit. When in 2008, international mining companies showed interest into Nisa's uranum, local people started the movement "Uranium Not in Nisa - Urânio em Nisa Não“ and finally the people and the City Hall of Nisa decided to leave uranium on the ground in favor of a sustainable development based on the region's natural products such as beef, goat and sheep, milk, sausages, hams, olives and the famous cheese of Nisa. People and politicians prefered a sustainable development based on cheese instead of Yellow Cake. Therefore, in 2012, Nisa and its movement „Urânio em Nisa Não" received the international award for a future without nuclear energy, called „Nuclear-Free Future Award“.

URANIUM – TWISTING THE DRAGON’S TAIL / The rock that became a bomb (Urânio – Torcendo a Cauda do Dragão, Episódio 1: A rocha que se tornou uma Bomba)

Australia, 2015, Director Wain Fimeri, Producer Sonya Pemberton and Genepool Productions for SBS Australia, PBS America & ZDF/Arte. Documentary, 51 min, English with Portuguese subtitles - The untold story of the most wondrous and terrifying rock on Earth: Uranium! Legends say there’s a world beneath this one where a dragon lies sleeping. They say be careful how you wake the dragon. At the turn of the 20th century uranium is virtually unknown and basically worthless. The discoveries of scientists such as Marie Curie, Ernest Rutherford and Albert Einstein unlock the secrets of the uranium atom, and allow us to peer into the very nature of the universe. Then one clear morning above the city of Hiroshima, uranium unleashes a terrifying power and changes the world forever. The film received the Uranium Film Festival's Yellow Einstein Award. “I was fascinated. This is the best documentary I've ever seen about the history of the discovery of radioactivity to nuclear bomb production and rudiments of nuclear physics.” Professor Dr. Alphonse Kelecom, Uranium Film Festival juror.

Debate: “The radiation effects of uranium mining in Portugal and in the world”. Round Table with ATMU, AZU, QUERCUS, Stop Uranium, MUNN and MIA.

07.30 pm - Presentation of the summary of the debates by João Paiva, Doctoral Student in Military History and Doctora Catarina Minhoto (Secretary of the General Assembly of ATMU)

CLOSURE CEREMONY

International Uranium Film Festival

Márcia Gomes de Oliveira, Diretora Executiva

Rua Monte Alegre 356 / 301
Santa Teresa / Rio de Janeiro / RJ
CEP20240-195 /Brasil

www.uraniumfilmfestival.org
Email: info@uraniumfilmfestival.org
Tel: (0055) (21) 2507 6704 - (0055) (21) 97207 6704

catalogo_-_programa_-_uranium_film_festival_portugal_2019_-_web.pdf

cartaz_uranium_film_festival_portugal_2019_-_web_.jpg