Downwind - Documentary Review Melbourne Documentary Film Festival 2023

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Thu 27 Jul 2023

Downwind - Documentary Review (Melbourne Documentary Film Festival 2023)



During the Cold War, the United States government conducted 928 nuclear weapons tests at a site in Mercury, Nevada. The testing site was chosen because of its remoteness, but some people still lived in the path of the radiation generated by the explosions. These people are now known as 'downwinders' and they experience cancer and premature death in numbers far greater than the general population.

The documentary Downwind, directed by Mark Shapiro and Douglas Brian Miller, tells the stories of the downwinders, whose fight for justice continues to this day. The film is narrated by Martin Sheen and features testimony from victims and community leaders, plus contributions from comedian Lewis Black and actor Michael Douglas. The result is an eye-opening work of advocacy which explores the history of the nuclear tests and gives voice to a group of people who became victims just for living in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The downwinder story begins in the aftermath of World War II when America wanted to retain its nuclear ascendancy over the USSR. The US had previously relied on sites in the Pacific to conduct weapons tests, but the Cold War demanded swifter action (the remote Pacific sites were a logistical nightmare and were hard to secure from prying enemy eyes). It was decided a testing site on the US mainland would be found.

Downwind details the backstory carefully, often using government-produced films to convey the information. The site at Mercury ticked most of the boxes. It was remote and weather patterns meant that nuclear fallout wouldn't move west towards large population centres in California. The people who did live close to Mercury - and this is one of the film's most chilling moments - were deemed in a government memo to be a 'low-use' segment of the population and thus not something to worry about.

These 'low-use' people included members of the Shoshone Native American Tribe, whose lands adjoin the testing site. A community leader is featured in Downwind, documenting the history of the disease his people have faced since the testing, not to mention the poisoning of the land and soil of his nation. Also featured are residents of St George, Utah, a small town that repeatedly came under direct threat of radiation due to inaccurate wind forecasts.

And in perhaps the most famous of all downwinder stories, the documentary explores the production of The Conqueror, the 1956 John Wayne movie filmed in St George, Utah. As the years ticked by, the cast and crew of the movie were afflicted with cancer at an astonishingly high rate, including John Wayne himself, who some believe contracted cancer as a result of filming in St George.

Towards the end of Downwind, as the tragic stories pile up, there are calls for justice for the victims. The film contends that although the testing program began a long time ago, the US government knew that what it was doing was dangerous. This is the scariest part of the story. That the US government knowingly lied, assuring people that they would be kept safe. For bringing this subject into clear view, Downwind is an important record. A cautionary tale about how a government can fail to protect its own people.



Downwind is screening at 6pm on the 27th of July at Cinema Nova as part of the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival 2023. Find more information on the festival's official website .

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!date 27/07/2023 -- 27/07/2023
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