Award Winning Films 2011

Director: Pablo Ortega

JURY AWARD BEST SHORT FILM 2011

Uranium 238 depicts the hazards that the use of depleted uranium or DU in conventional weapons poses for the health of soldiers and civilians. Through interviews with soldiers, scientists and activists, the documentary explores the health hazards when this radioactive and toxic material is ingested or inhaled by people in the battle fields and shooting ranges. Based in scientific data this video has been used by the International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons (ICBUW) as part of its international campaign to prohibit DU as a military component.

Uranium 238: The Pentagon´s Dirty Pool (Uranio 238: La Bomba Sucia del Pentágono), Costa Rica, 2009, 28 min, Director: Pablo Ortega, Producer Isabel Macdonald and San José Quaker Peace Center.

URANIUM 238 - The Pentagon´s Dirty Pool won the Jury Award as the Best Short Film of the First International Uranium Film Festival 2011.

Isabel Macdonald:

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

About the Film

Short film jury award winner "Uranium 238: The Pentagon´s Dirty Pool" by Pablo Ortega is another film that dismantles disinformation. Pablo Ortega's short film is a rich source of information about using radioactive depleted uranium as weapons and about the consequences of doing so. You must see it!

João Luiz Leocadio

Nuclear Engineer and Professor of the Department of Cinema & Video of the Federal Fluminense University (UFF)

Director's Biography

Pablo Ortega, graduated from Escuela Internacional de Cine y TV, San Antonio de los Baños (Cuba) 2001, is profesor of Film and Animation History in Universidad Veritas. He is best known for the TV documentary Costa Rica S.A. (Costa Rica, Inc., 2006), which denounced the social impact of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) to Costa Rican social policies.