Product Description

Winner of the Grand Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and recipient of a national Emmy Award, DARK CIRCLE follows the trail of plutonium from the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons facility in Colorado, to the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant in California, to Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #85591 in DVD
• Brand: NEW VIDEO GROUP
• Released on: 2007-03-27
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 82 minutes

Features

• Winner of the Grand Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and recipient of a national Emmy Award, DARK CIRCLE follows the trail of plutonium from the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons facility in Colorado, to the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant in California, to Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DOCUMENTARIES Rating: NR Age: 767685985533 UPC: 767685

Amazon.com
Environmental-minded documentaries are often more informative than emotionally involving. That isn't the case with Dark Circle, winner of the Sundance Grand Jury Prize. Directed by Chris Beaver, Ruth Landy, and Judy Irving (The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill), the POV presentation explores the human cost of nuclear technology without skimping on the science. Irving, who narrates, starts by talking about her relationship to plutonium as a child. In the 1940s, the US government presented atomic power as a means to keep America safe. She thought that was the whole story. A trip to Colorado's Rocky Flats as an adult convinces her that the collateral damage is being downplayed. The filmmakers talk to residents dealing with radiation sickness, like a weapons facility worker with brain cancer, a father who lost his daughter to leukemia, and a farmer with mutated livestock. Then they travel to California's Diablo Canyon and Nagasaki, giving everyone from protestors to designers the chance to have their say. Though the trio keeps the shock tactics to a minimum, some of this material is not for the squeamish, particularly the footage of Japanese citizens injured by radiation exposure and the now-declassified "Priscilla" test of 1957 in which 700 pigs were subjected to an atomic blast (Scientists learned that porcine skin is sturdier than human, but hardly indestructible). Extras include Nagasaki Journey and Hidden Voices: The Final Hours of Karen Silkwood. The entire package aims to provoke--and succeeds. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Customer Reviews

Must see for anyone interested in the U.S. weapons program
This film will haunt your days and nights, it is a deep inside look at the U.S. nuclear weapons program, its cost in financial and human terms, and security or lack of it is at times frightening.

Produced by a highly talented team originally aired for POV on PBS, now hard to find, but definitely worth a watch for scientists, historians, and anyone interested in the MADness of mutually assured destruction.

Great Film
This is a great film. I saw it years ago on television and was very moved by it. Years later, I saw "The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill," by the same director (Judy Irving). Another excellent film. I'm glad "Dark Circle" is now available on DVD. It's a classic. Informative yet emotionally wrenching.