PROGRESS 1984: ATOMIC WEAPONS PASS

In 1984, the Australian Government issued letters patent for a royal commission into British nuclear weapons tests conducted in Australia in the 1950s and ‘60s. On the 40th anniversary of the royal commission, we invite audiences to reflect on the development and use of atomic weapons through these special screenings.  
 
Director Larissa Behrendt AO joins us for a Q&A after her Australian documentary Maralinga Tjarutja, the story of the Maralinga people’s fight for justice following their dispossession to enable British nuclear testing. You can also see the powerful 1980s anime film Barefoot Gen and Stanley Kubrick’s classic satire Dr. Strangelove.

BAREFOOT GEN 

FRI 12 JUL | 6PM | Arc Cinema |$16/$12 (pass: $25/$20) 
1983 | PG | 80 mins | DCP | JPN | D: Mori Masaki
Japanese – English subtitles

This renowned 1983 anime film depicts the bombing of Hiroshima and its aftermath through the eyes of a child. Schoolboy Gen is lucky to survive the initial blast and makes it home to save his pregnant mother, but not without witnessing the horrific fate of other family and friends. In the days that follow, Gen, his mother, and Ryuta – a young boy orphaned by the bombing – struggle to survive.  
 
Loosely based on the Japanese manga series by Keiji Nakazawa, a Hiroshima survivor, Barefoot Gen is a powerful reminder of the enormous human toll of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and a reflection on the devastating effects of atomic warfare. 
 
‘…a powerful and memorable anti-war testament’ – The Austin Chronicle 
  
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MARALINGA TJARUTJA + Q&A

SAT 13 JUL | 1PM | Arc Cinema |$16/$12 (pass: $25/$20) 
2020 | M | 52 mins | DCP | AUS | D: Larissa Behrendt

2020 | DCP | AUS | D: Larissa Behrendt 

The Maralinga people have lived on their lands for over 60,000 years. Institutionalised in the Ooldea Mission in the 1920s, colonial dispossession of the Maralinga people was further intensified when their lands were used for the British Nuclear Test Program between 1953 and 1963.  

Written and directed by Larissa Behrendt, this award-winning documentary celebrates the tenacity, strength and achievements of the Maralinga people, who fought for the clean-up of radioactive and other contamination, for compensation, and for the handback in 2009 of the Maralinga Village and test sites. 

Following the screening, join us for a Q&A with the film's director, Euaheleyai/Gamullaroi woman Professor Larissa Behrendt AO, an award-winning filmmaker, author and legal academic. 

 
Held in the NFSA collection. 

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DR. STRANGELOVE or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

SAT 13 JUL | 6PM | Arc Cinema |$16/$12 (pass: $25/$20) 
1964 | PG | 92 mins | DCP | US | D: Stanley Kubrick

From Stanley Kubrick (The Shining, A Clockwork Orange, 2001: A Space Odyssey) comes this absurdist and unconventional black comedy about a US General who orders a nuclear attack against the Soviet Union. Dr. Strangelove satirises Cold War politics and the prevalent fears of nuclear conflict in the 1960s with artful use of cinematic cliches, machismo and sexual undertones. Nominated for four Academy Awards and seven BAFTA Awards (including four wins), Dr. Strangelove is one of Kubrick’s most critically acclaimed films.  
 
‘Kubrick's wicked send-up of the then-burgeoning military-industrial complex is still lacerating today’ – The Washington Post 

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