Docs on Nukes - Nuclear Narrative through the Art of Film May 9, 2010

Hibakusha Stories and Maysles Cinema present "Witness to Hiroshima" and "Atomic Mom", two documentaries portraying the personal stories of atomic bomb survivors (hibakusha). A panel discussion with Kathy Sloane and M.T. Silvia, filmmakers, and Kathleen Sullivan, PhD, Program Director of Hibakusha Stories follows. Bring your mom and your anti-nuclear family and friends!

"The art of narrative is what Hibakusha Stories is all about"- says Kathleen Sullivan, a key team player of the initiative.- "Nuclear stories can be hard to tell and hard to hear, but film captures peoples attention. We are proud to welcome Bay Area based filmmakers MT Silvia and Kathy Sloane to New York as part of our project to tell stories that engage people in the inspired struggle for nuclear abolition."

"Witness to Hiroshima" Directed by Kathy Sloane, 2010
Japanese citizen Keiji Tsuchiya, using his 12 powerful watercolors, recounts his experiences in Hiroshima as a 17-year-old soldier immediately following the dropping of the atomic bomb, and relates those experiences to his subsequent life-long commitment to saving the Japanese horseshoe crab and its habitat.

"Atomic Mom". Directed by M.T. Silvia, 2010 - Special Sneak Preview
Atomic Mom is a documentary about two women, both mothers, who have opposite experiences of the atomic bomb. After decades of silence, a daughter's quest for truth leads to the exchange of an olive branch between an American Scientist and a Hiroshima Survivor. http://www.atomicmom.org

An initiative that began in October of 2008 when Youth Arts New York was approached by the Peace Boat "Hibakusha Project" to bring survivors to New York City school children to tell their stories, Hibakusha Stories passes the legacy of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to a new generation, and empowers them with tools to build a world free of nuclear weapons.

Panelists are available for interviews; if interested please contact: laura@patchworksfilms.net.

Official Website: http://hibakushastories.org/film-festival.html