Atomic Mom

Film evenings begin with potluck refreshments and social hour at 6:30 pm,
followed by the film at 7:30 pm, followed by a discussion after the film.

ATOMIC MOM
by M.T. Silvia
– appearing in person

Atomic Mom weaves an intimate portrait of a complex mother-daughter relationship within an important moment in American history. As the only female scientist present during atomic detonations in the Nevada desert, Pauline Silvia, the filmmaker’s mother, undergoes a crisis of conscience. After a long silence and prompted by her daughter, she finally reveals grim secrets of working in the U.S. atomic testing program. In our present moment of Wikileaks, Pauline is a similar whistle-blower having been cowed by the silencing machine of the U.S. military for decades. In an attempt to reconcile with her own mother’s past, her daughter, filmmaker M.T. Silvia, meets Emiko Okada, a Hiroshima survivor trying to reconcile her own history in Japan. This moving film follows these survivors, each on a different end of atomic warfare, as they meet through the filmmaking process, and as they, with startling honestly, attempt to understand the other. With the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the footage of the devastation is hauntingly familiar to the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. As Japan experiences its second nuclear crisis, this film illustrates how we are all downwind of this story. The film invites viewers to confront American nuclear history in a completely new way and will inspire dialogue about human rights, personal responsibility, and the possibility — and hope — of peace.

Wheelchair accessible around the corner at 411 28th Street

$5 donations are accepted