Laborfest: Nuclear Crisis Films from Japan

Mt. Fuji in Red (From Dreams)
(1990) 8 min. Japan By Akira Kurosawa
Mt. Fuji in Red is part of a series of stories by powerful Japanese director Akira Kurosawa. Kurosawa was not taken in by the media propaganda that nuclear power was safe. This short drama is about a nuclear power station which blows up and the people try to escape from Japan. This dream was a nightmare that has come true for the people of Japan.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000041/

Fukushima Never Again
(2012) 57 min. By Labor Video Project
The nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plants in March of 2011 was not supposed to happen according the government and the Tokyo Electric Power Company TEPCO. This documentary allows the mothers of Fukushima, health and safety experts and trade unionists to talk about the real history of this disaster and effects of it on their communities and country. The nuclear radiation continues to contaminate not only Japan but also the whole world, and yet the US continues to operate nuclear plants on the coast of California, which is also an earthquake zone and throughout the country. The 104 nuclear plants have hundreds of thousands of used nuclear rods, which are building up at each plant and waiting for a disaster to happen. The lessons of Fukushima have great relevance and meaning for the labor movement and people of the US. Chieko Shiina from Fukushima will be attending.
http://www.fukushimaneveragain.org

ANPO: Art x War
(2011) 89 min. By Linda Hoaglund
In 1960 a massive movement of trade unionists and students rose up against the stationing of nuclear weapons and US military bases in Japan. The US was pushing the Japanese government to sign the U.S.-Japan Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security known as ANPO which allowed for military bases throughout Japan and on the island of Okinawa. This film by Linda Hoagland, who grew up in Japan, is about the artists of the period who expressed their opposition to militarization and war by their art. The best land within the center of Okinawa contains the US base and it has created an environmental and health crisis for the people of the island. Today as the US expands militarization in Asia, the cost of this intervention is paid for by the workers and people of the region. Cheko Shiina from Fukushima will be attending.
http://anpomovie.com/en/?p=588
http://www.lhoaglund.com/
See also:
http://www.laborfest.net/2012/2012Films.htm#f6
http://www.laborfest.net/2012/2012schedule.htm