PRESS RELEASE, RIO DE JANEIRO, 20/07/2012

Uranium Film Festival’s Yellow Oscars go to USA, Sweden, Germany and Ukraine

The 2nd International Uranium Film Festival of Rio de Janeiro 2012 awarded its Yellow Oscars. Three films from USA, Sweden and Germany were honoured with the Festival’s Yellow Oscar Awards. Bill Keislings "Not for Public Release: a Nuclear Incident in Lock Haven", USA, received the Best Feature Award, and Swedish Filmmaker Marko Kattilakoski received the Short film Award for his movie Coffee Break (Fikapaus). "Leonids Story" by German film director Rainer Ludwigs and Ukrainian producer Tetyana Chernyavska got the Yellow Oscar in the animated film category.

A special recognition was made for Peter Greenway’s extraordinary shortfilm "Atomic Bombs on the Planet Earth". That outstanding experimental documentary, that shows the insanity of over 2200 atomic bombs dropped on the planet Earth between 1945 and 1989 was honoured with the special recognition “Hors Concurs”. “Peter Greenaway, a multi-artist with more that 70 films produced is in a category in his own”, said Uranium Film Festival Judge João Luiz Leocádio, Nuclear Engineer and Professor for Cinema at Niteroi’s Univercity UFF (Universidade Federal Fluminense).

During three Weeks the Festival screened 54 documentaries, movies and animated films from all continents in the Cinemateca of Rio de Janeiro’s famous Modern Art Museum MAM. After Rio de Janeiro the Uranium Film Festival is now travelling. The next stop is planned in Berlin at the beginning of October!

About the Yellow Oscar Winners

Marko Kattilakoski’s movie Coffee Break (Fikapaus) from Sweden received the Yellow Oscar in the short film category. “Coffee break is a dark, ironic Swedish comedy-thriller about Chernobyl, the worst nuclear disaster in history”, said festival director Norbert G. Suchanek. “The nuclear issues need films like Fikapaus. And I hope that the Yellow Oscar stimulates not only Marko to continue his genius work, but also other `nuclear´ filmmakers to follow his example.”

In his award statement Marko Kattilakoski said: “Coffee Break was a story I had to tell. The team I gathered believed in the idea and we made the film with minimal budget and a lot of heart. I was very proud and happy that "Coffee Break" was accepted to the festival. I am even prouder and happier now receiving the Yellow Oscar 2012.”

Bill Keislings "Not For Public Release: A nuclear incident in Lock Haven”, produced in 2010 won the festival’s Best Feature Award. The documentary examines the problem of privatized Pentagon nuclear waste, and how the government's secretive handling of this sensitive issue places unsuspecting citizens in unacceptable risk.

„Thank you for the good news that my documentary `Not For Public Release´ has won the Yellow Oscar Award”, said Bill Keisling. “The nuclear incident in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, and its many victims, have received no publicity whatsoever from the corporate media in Pennsylvania and the United States. The Yellow Oscar Award from the Uranium Film Festival will not only shine light on my film, it will help to illuminate the plight of the many nuclear victims in the United States, most of whom are usually completely ignored by the government and media here.”

Last but not least the festival honoured “Leonids Story” by German Film director Rainer Ludwigs and Ukrainian Producer Tetyana Chernyavska. Leonids Story is an outstanding, heartbreaking animated documentary about the nuclear disaster of Chernobyl 1986. Judge Leo Ribeiro, Professor for animated film at Rio de Janeiro’s Univercity PUC (Pontificia Universidade Catolica) said: “Leonids Story is an Animated-Documentary Short, a genre that is booming right now. Rainer Ludwigs mixes digital and traditional techniques in a perfect balance. The use of images and pictures mixed with drawings creates a dialogue between reality and imagination that the film leads to a shocking end.”

Award Statement from Sweden
http://www.uraniofestival.org/index.php/en/component/content/article/75-en/videos/298-marko-kattilakoski

Award Statement from USA
http://www.uraniofestival.org/index.php/en/component/content/article/73-en/frontpage-en/296-bill-keisling-about-the-festival

Award Statement from Germany
http://www.uraniofestival.org/index.php/en/component/content/article/75-en/videos/299-rainer-ludwigs

Contact & Photos

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www.uraniumfilmfestival.org

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The 2012 Uranium Film Festival’s three Yellow Oscars go to Germany, Sweden, USA and Ukraine

Saturday, July the 14th ended the 2nd International Uranium Film Festival in the Cinemateca Rio de Janeiro’s Modern Art Museum MAM. Three films from USA, Sweden and Germany were honoured with the Festival’s Yellow Oscar Awards. Bill Keislings "Not for Public Release: a Nuclear Incident in Lock Haven", USA, received the Best Feature Award and Swedish Filmmaker Marko Kattilakoski the Short film Award for his movie Coffee Break (Fikapaus). "Leonids Story" by German film director Rainer Ludwigs and Ukrainian producer Tetyana Chernyavska got the Yellow Oscar in the animated film category. Peter Greenaway’s extraordinary "Atomic Bombs on the Planet Earth" received the special recognition "Hors Concours". He's in a category in his own. During three Weeks the Festival screened 54 documentaries, movies and animated films from all continents. Parallel to the Festival a photo exhibition by US-Photographer Robert del Tredici and the Atomic Photographers Guild was shown in the foyer of the MAM Cinema.

Rio de Janeiro, Monday July 16th - The 2nd International Uranium Film Festival of Rio de Janeiro honoured three films from Germany, Sweden and USA with the Yellow Oscar Award last Saturday. In Respect for the indigenous peoples of Brazil, the Award Ceremony of the Uranium film Festival was opened by three indigenous Representatives from three different parts of the country. Together with Chief Carlos Tukano from the Alto Rio Negro and Afonso Apurinã from Boca do Acre, indigenous singer Zahy Guajajara from the State of Maranhão interpreted a powerful holy song of here people.

The Ceremony continued with "Atomic Bombs on the Planet Earth" by Peter Greenaway. That outstanding experimental documentary, that shows the insanity of over 2200 atomic bombs dropped on the planet Earth between 1945 and 1989 mainly by the five atomic powers, was honoured with the special recognition “Hors Concurs”. “Peter Greenaway, a multi-artist with more that 70 films produced is in a category in his own”, said Uranium Film Festival Judge João Luiz Leocádio, Nuclear Engineer and Professor for Cinema at Niteroi’s Univercity UFF (Universidade Federal Fluminense).

Marko Kattilakoski’s movie Coffee Break (Fikapaus) from Sweden received the Yellow Oscar in the short film category “Coffee break is a movie with a minimal budget but a lot of heart. It is a dark, ironic Swedish comedy-thriller about Chernobyl, the worst nuclear disaster in history”, said festival director Norbert G. Suchanek. “The nuclear issues need films like Fikapaus. And I hope that the Yellow Oscar stimulates not only Marko to continue his genius work, but also other `nuclear´ filmmakers to follow his example.”

In his award statement Marko Kattilakoski said: “Coffee Break was a story I had to tell. The team I gathered believed in the idea and we made the film with minimal budget and a lot of heart. I was very proud and happy that "Coffee Break" was accepted to the festival. I am even prouder and happier now receiving the Yellow Oscar 2012.”

Bill Keislings "Not For Public Release: A nuclear incident in Lock Haven”, produced in 2010 won the festival’s Best Feature Award. The documentary examines the problem of privatized Pentagon nuclear waste, and how the government's secretive handling of this sensitive issue places unsuspecting citizens in unacceptable risk.

„Thank you for the good news that my documentary `Not For Public Release´ has won the Yellow Oscar Award”, said Bill Keisling. “The nuclear incident in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, and its many victims, have received no publicity whatsoever from the corporate media in Pennsylvania and the United States. The Yellow Oscar Award from the Uranium Film Festival will not only shine light on my film, it will help to illuminate the plight of the many nuclear victims in the United States, most of whom are usually completely ignored by the government and media here.”

Last but not least the festival honoured “Leonids Story” by German Film director Rainer Ludwigs and Ukrainian Producer Tetyana Chernyavska. Leonids Story is an outstanding, heartbreaking animated documentary about the nuclear disaster of Chernobyl 1986. Judge Leo Ribeiro, Professor for animated film at Rio de Janeiro’s Univercity PUC (Pontificia Universidade Catolica) said: “Leonids Story is an Animated-Documentary Short, a genre that is booming right now. Rainer Ludwigs mixes digital and traditional techniques in a perfect balance. The use of images and pictures mixed with drawings creates a dialogue between reality and imagination that the film leads to a shocking end.”

In his impressive Award speech Rainer Ludwigs said in the Cinemateca of Rio de Janeiro’s Modern Art Museum: “We are happy to be part of this festival, as filmmakers and as viewers. Here I saw films that taught me, that this chain begins with the unhealthy mining of uranium, gets worse during the whole process until the reprocessing of spent fuel, silently polluting complete coast areas, nature paradises, bringing cancer and other diseases, destroying peoples health and professions. The festival has opened our eyes. It has shown us, nuclear problems are not only national problems but have a worldwide structure. A festival like this is an important institution and may be the only weapon against this worldwide crime, which brings profit to few and ruins the life of millions. This festival has opened our horizons, so we hope that it will be established in cities all over the world.”

Rainer Ludwigs: "We would like to thank the Uranium Film Festival Team for their enthusiasm, for their initiative, for the invitation and being so heartily welcomed in this great city Rio de Janeiro, in this country which represents so well most of the natural wonders of our world.”

All the Yellow Oscar winners and the nominees of the 2012 Uranium Film Festival were selected by the 5 members Jury of the Festival: João Luiz Leocádio, Nuclear Engineer and Professor of Film and Video at Niterois Univercity UFF (Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF); Leo Ribeiro, Animation filmmaker and Master in Design at Rio de Janeiros Univercity PUC (Pontifícia Universidade Católica); Gilberto Santeiro, Brazilian Filmmaker, Director and Curator of the Cinemateca of the Modern Art Museum of Rio de Janeiro; Dawid Bartelt, Director of the Heinrich Böll Foundation Brazil; Norbert G. Suchanek, Human rights and environmental Journalist, Writer and Uranium Film Festival Director.

The Yellow Oscar 2012 is a model of the Tram of Rio de Janeiro’s famous artist quarter Santa Teresa. “The model of the called Bonde, Rio de Janeiro’s last Tram, is a symbol of a sustainable public transport that serves the local community of Santa Teresa where the International Uranium Film Festival was born last year“, said Festival Executive Director Marcia Gomes de Oliveira.

"The 2nd International Uranium Film Festival in Rio de Janeiro is over, but it continues with travelling festivals", declared the festival directors Marcia Gomes de Oliveira and Norbert G. Suchanek at the end of the Ceremony. "A selection of the best films of the Festivals 2012 and 2011 will be presented during the next travelling Uranium Film Festival in Berlin, planned for October. “The Festival thanks the host, Rio de Janeiro’s Museum of Modern Art and the director of the Cinemateca Gilberto Santeiro as well as the Heinrich Boell Foundation Brazil and its director Dawid Danilo Bartelt for its valuable support and the local supporters of Santa Teresa, Bar do Mineiro and Armazem São Thiago for there hospitality.”

After the Ceremony, the Party went on in the so-called Gardens of the Cinemateca with traditional Caipirinha and Rio de Janeiro’s famous Cachaça Magnífica!

 

YELLOW OSCAR AWARD STATEMENT by  Marko Kattilakoski

Dear Norbert G. Suchanek and Uranium Film Festival, This is Great News! "Coffee Break" was a story I had to tell. The team I gathered believed in the idea and we made the film with minimal budget and a lot of heart. I was very proud and happy that "Coffee Break" was accepted to the festival. Receiving the Yellow Oscar 2012, I am even prouder and happier. Best regards

Marko Kattilakoski

YELLOW OSCAR AWARD STATEMENT by RAINER LUDWIGS

Every one of us shares the experience that there are only few times in our lives that open our horizons in ways we never expected. When Tanya and I started our project we were not aware it would take us to places we’ve never seen before, introduce us to people from all over the world, and show us how humans get lost after unthinkable nuclear accidents. The destiny of our protagonist Leonid was so impressive, his sadness so touching, that we just had to tell his story as an example of so many forgotten stories of men, women, liquidators, children and victims of Chernobyl.

We never thought we’d be presenting it to viewers all over the world.

We are happy to be part of this festival, as filmmakers and as viewers. Here I saw films that taught me, that this chain begins with the unhealthy mining of uranium, gets worse during the whole process until the reprocessing of spent fuel, silently polluting complete coast areas, nature paradises, bringing cancer and other diseases, destroying peoples health and professions. We have also seen how always and everywhere the same things keep happening: Governments and officials lie to people, which have been affected by uranium mining, bomb tests, nuclear accidents, and preparation of the unholy fuel for weapons and energy by the so called friendly atom.

The festival has opened our eyes. It has shown us, nuclear problems are not only national problems but have a worldwide structure. The lack of responsibility by decision makers and politicians for the people who elected them. And the missing knowledge about the rotten structure of the nuclear industry, a worldwide network which contaminates areas all over the world and covers up their actions.

A festival like this is an important institution and may be the only weapon against this worldwide crime, which brings profit to few and ruins the life of millions. This festival has opened our horizons, so we hope that it will be established in cities all over the world.

We would like to thank Marcia Gomes de Oliveira and Norbert Suchanek for their enthusiasm, for their initiative, for the invitation and being so heartily welcomed in this great city Rio de Janeiro, in this country which represents so well most of the natural

wonders of our world. Their engagement shows that kind of responsibility and respect for people and nature we’d like to see in our politicians. To bring all these filmmakers worldwide together is the kind of political action we need to stop this profit-driven nuclear war against people. It’s maybe the beginning of a worldwide network of information, interested in nothing but the truth.

We wish, that this second festival continues to establish a long and worldwide tradition and independent information campaign through cinema.

Rainer Ludwigs, Rio de Janeiro, 14.07.2012

YELLOW OSCAR AWARD STATEMENT by BILL KEISLING

Dear Uranium Film Festival Team, thank you for the good news that my documentary "Not For Public Release" receives the Yellow Oscar Award. The nuclear incident in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, and its many victims, have received no publicity whatsoever from the corporate media in Pennsylvania and the United States. The Yellow Oscar Award from the Uranium Film Festival will not only shine light on my film, it will help to illuminate the plight of the many nuclear victims in the United States, most of whom are usually completely ignored by the government and media here. Thanks again, Bill Keisling

LEONIDS STORY - DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

Just a few weeks before the 25 anniversary of the disaster of Chernobyl another name on the map of nuclear disasters was known. For several further generations these defeats will stay as black spots in the history of mankind. In 2010, I saw the children of Chernobyl in hospitals, I spoke with the liquidators, who were still traumatized after 25 years and I felt that I would have to narrate the history of this dark episode again. Not from the view of decision makers but from the perspective of the poor men who had no chance to change their destinies in that uncontrollable course of events. The consequences will last fort the rest of their lives and that of their disabled and unhealthy children. When I began that project in the early fall 2010, I had no idea that reality would turn that issue more relevant again than anybody would have estimated. How many Chernobyls and how many Fukushimas we will still experience?

Rainer Ludwigs

"Not For Public Release: A nuclear incident in Lock Haven”  Director's statement

What happens when students at a university in the United States learn they live in apartments built on the site of an abandoned Pentagon nuclear waste site? That's what I set out to discover in my film "Not For Public Release": A nuclear incident in Lock Haven. The truth is often the first casualty, I'd learn. In the mid-twentieth century, the U.S. government actually gave some of its defence contractor’s permission to dump radioactive waste on their private properties. The Pentagon seldom, if ever, disclosed the whereabouts of these dangerous nuclear dumps. The problem becomes one for the ages: many of these radioactive isotopes remain dangerous and "hot" for thousands of years, even as the radiation is invisible to unsuspecting victims. This carelessness caught up with college students in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania. One day the students woke up to find environmental officials dressed in protective "moonsuits" searching their apartment building for tell-tale signs of radioactive waste. It would turn out that the student housing had been built on a property where a long-dead Pentagon contractor once dumped his highly radioactive DOD waste. My documentary film, Not For Public Release: A nuclear incident in Lock Haven, examines the problem of privatized Pentagon nuclear waste, and how the government's secretive handling of this sensitive issue places unsuspecting citizens in unacceptable risk.

COFFEE BREAK - DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

In 1986, Gävle, Sweden, I was riding my bike in the rain. A week later I learned the rain came from a cloud that had travelled straight from Ukraine and the Chernobyl disaster. Due to radiation we still, 25 years later, can’t eat mushroom or berries from the forests around Gävle. In 2006 it was pure luck that prevented a nuclear meltdown in Forsmark, a nuclear power plant only 70 km from my home. In 2010 I took a beating by a street gang while I was walking home from a pub.

In my mind I connected these very different occasions and I started to write a script that circled around fear. And I realized that what I fear, is what I can’t see. Radioactivity and lack of empathy is similar in that way. You can’t see that a mushroom is radioactive by just looking at it. And you can’t see if a person is empathic or not. He, or she, may tell jokes and be friendly, but what hides behind the mask?

In 2011 the script was written with, for me, a rather surprising comic touch, and I started planning the movie. I gathered a talented team of friends and independent filmmakers, where I would like to mention Daniel Morin who did a great job on editing and sound design, Ronny Rasmusson who did the wonderful music, and the two leading actors Dennis Åhs and Henning Larsson Müller. The result is Coffee Break, a comedy/thriller.

Marko Kattilakoski, Director and screenwriter of “Coffee Break”

The Yellow Oscar Nominees 2012 were:

Short Film Competition

Atomic Bombs on The Planet Earth by Peter Greenaway, Production: Change Performing Arts of Milan, Netherlands/United Kingdom, 2011, 12 min,

Jadugoda the black magic by Shriprakash, India, 2009, 9 min

Fikapaus (Coffee Break) by Marko Kattilakoski, Sweden, 2011, 14 min

Feature Film Competition

The Red Button (Czerwony Guzik) by Ewa Pieta & Miroslaw Grubek, Production: Miroslaw Grubek, Slawomir Grunberg, Poland/USA, 2011, 52 min

Not for Public Release: a Nuclear Incident in Lock Haven, by Bill Keisling, USA, 2010

Chernobyl: The invisible thief, by Christoph Boekel, Production: ARTE &WDR, Germany, 2006, 59 min

Animated Film Competion

Leonids Story by Rainer Ludwigs, Production: Tetyana Chernyavska, Germany / Ukraine, 2011, 19 min

Sacred Ground by Karen Aqua, USA, 1997, 9 min

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Press Release 30. April 2012

Von Einstein bis Fukushima: Uran Film Festival von Rio de Janeiro zeigt Produktionen aus Deutschland

Sechs Tage nach der UN-Umweltkonferenz Rio plus 20 startet das 2. Internationale Uran Film Festival im Filmtheater des Museums fuer Moderne Kunst von Rio de Janeiro. Thema des Festivals: Von Einstein bis Fukushima. Vom 28. Juni bis zum 14. Juli 2012 wird das in der Welt einzigartige Festival insgesamt ueber 50 Filme zum Themenkomplex Atomkraft, Atombomben, Uranbergbau und radioaktive Gefahren aus allen Kontinenten zeigen. Auch mehrere deutsche Produktionen sowie eine Produktion aus Oesterreich sind dabei und werden erstmals in Brasilien gezeigt. Z.B.:

 

Uranium Film Festival recognized in India

"The Telegraph" of Calcutta published Friday, April 20 a remarcable article about the Uranium Film Festival of Rio de Janeiro and "nuclear" filmmaker Shriprakash from India. "Jadugoda - The Black Magic, a nine-minute documentary on the problems faced by miners of Jadugoda in East Singhbhum captured by Ranchi-based filmmaker Shriprakash, is set for a Brazil debut at the Uranium Film Festival scheduled in June", writes the Telegraph. The festival of Rio de Janeiro will also screen another shocking documentary about Jadugoda: "Toxic Neglect", by Moushumi Basu.

Brazil debut in June - Nine-minute film on hazards of mining - The Telegraph, Calcutta, India

 

 

2nd INTERNATIONAL URANIUM FILM FESTIVAL

from June 28th to July 14th, 2012, Rio de Janeiro, MAM

A few days after the Earth Summit (Rio plus 20) the 2nd INTERNATIONAL URANIUM FILM FESTIVAL of Rio de Janeiro invites to the Cinema of the Museum of Modern Art (MAM). The Uranium Film Festival has selected 48 films about nuclear power, uranium mining, depleted uranium weapons and nuclear accidents for the screenings June 28 to July 14, 2012.

Also the documentary about NY nuclear power plant Indian Point will have its Brazilian Premiere: "Indian Point - Nowhere to Run" by Tobe Carey.

Rio de Janeiro, 31 March, 2012 — From Einstein to Fukushima, from the first Atomic Bomb tests to the nuclear accident of Fukushima. The 2nd International Uranium Film Festival has now selected 40 documentaries, movies and animated shorts about nuclear issues that will screen at the cinema of the famous Modern Art Museum (MAM) of Rio de Janeiro 28 June to 14 July. Since its start in 2011 the Uranium Film Festival has developed to the most important showcase of "nuclear" films and "nuclear" filmmakers from all continents that sometimes risk their lives to produce their films. "We are proud that most of the selected films are Latin American Premiers and some are World Premiers", says Uranium Film Festival director Norbert G. Suchanek.