Cinema
Half Life
Dennis O'Rourke · 1985
Synopsis
In 1954, the United States detonates an H-bomb in the Marshall Islands, the Bravo test, far more powerful than the earlier ones. The wind carries the radioactive cloud towards the atolls of Rongelap and Utirik, whose inhabitants are neither warned nor evacuated: fallout covers the ground, children play in it, and that very evening the population shows serious symptoms. The film sets declassified images from the American army, and extracts from propaganda films, against the testimony of the inhabitants of Rongelap and Rongerik, and argues that these populations were treated as subjects of study.
Context
The film grew out of the American Congress hearings, in the eighties, on compensation for the Marshallese. The director wrote it, produced it and operated the camera, and intertitles replace any spoken commentary. According to the Amsterdam documentary festival, the documents it cites suggest that the test aimed to show the bomb to the Soviets and to measure the effects of the fallout, and nearby American ships were ordered to move away; a change of wind was invoked afterwards. Released on 20 February 1985, the film was distributed in the United States by Kino International.
Who it is for
An eighty-six-minute documentary in English and Marshallese, with no spoken commentary.
Prizes and reception
Film for Peace prize at the Berlin festival in 1986; for Australian Screen, a narrative constructed with remarkable care.
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