[ad_1]
By Holland Burris/UW News Lab
Oppenheimer has been a cinema sensation with seven Academy Awards for its depiction of the physicist who helped develop the world’s first nuclear weapons. There are more — and more important — stories to tell. The first-ever film festival about nuclear power will stop in Seattle on April 12-14 at Capitol Hill’s Northwest Film Forum thanks to Jad Baaklini, a native of Beirut now residing in Seattle as the children’s minister at St. Peter’s Episcopal Parish.
Baaklini became fascinated with the Hanford site in eastern Washington, learning about it after immigrating to the United States.
“I think people should just be aware of what’s around them,” Baaklini said. “Seattle can be in a little bubble especially if people are newcomers like me. I only moved here in 2018, and you know, you can live here your whole life not knowing the rest of Washington.”
After hearing about the International Uranium Film Festival, a Brazilian-based festival looking to stop in multiple locations in the U.S., he reached out to IUFF, pitched hosting to Northwest Film Forum, and connected the festival to its main sponsor, Physicians for Social Responsibility.
IUFF will show eight movies at the 12th Ave independent theater that will discuss nuclear issues from around the world, and include some panel discussions after a few of the films.
Baaklini said there are a few big stories about nuclear politics in Washington that he felt are important to include in the festival screenings, such as “Richland,” the documentary that discusses the manufacturing of plutonium in Washington State for the Manhattan Project.
The Hanford Site occupies roughly 600 square miles of land along the Columbia River in Washington State, to produce plutonium for the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki as a part of the Manhattan Project, a secret government program during World War II.
“All these films are not propaganda,” Baaklini said. “They are very heartful, soul-filled films that just show the complexity of the story, but you know these things still move by the ethics of nuclear weapons, and nuclear energy, in general.”
The International Uranium Film Festival runs this weekend at the Northwest Film Forum, 1515 12th Ave. Learn more at nwfilmforum.org.
The Journalism and Public Interest Communication News Lab at the University of Washington gives advanced journalism students an opportunity to build a dynamic clip portfolio by reporting for any of 70 client news outlets in the greater Seattle area. CHS is proud to work with young journalists and feature their work.
PLEASE HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE!
Subscribe to CHS to help us pay writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for as little as $5 a month.