Common knowledge

On May 15th, in Rio de Janeiro  hundreds of people took part in a march against the alleged corruption surrounding the building and re-vamping of the world cup football stadiums and against their huge cost, in a country where the money could have been spent on services to the people. There were protests in other cities as well.
I like the fact that the Brazilian people, who are famous as a nation of football lovers, have the courage and insight to stand up for what is really important.
Not far away, in the same city, in the Modern Art Museum, Flamengo Park, more uncomfortable truths were being aired on the second day of  the International Uranium Film Festival.
This festival is unique, gathering together films from around the world by filmmakers who have the courage to make films about the nuclear industry process from uranium mining, to atomic bombs and nuclear waste. These films are often made with risk to the film makers themselves.  They can show the real picture of what people are suffering .. they tell the truth about wind-born radioactive particles and the contaminated food chain... Sometimes the films are short animations and darkly humorous; sometimes they are fictional; sometimes, documentary. 
Somewhere, they take the facts from being common knowledge to a small community of people to becoming open knowledge in the global community. When you know that the water you have to give your children to drink is contaminated, you probably want the rest of the world to know why.
I strongly recommend reading the descriptions of the films, the directors' statements and watching some of the films or the trailers, which there are links to.  The progamme and notes made compulsive reading for me and left me humbler and wiser.  This is the link http://www.scribd.com/doc/222613160/4th-Rio-de-Janeiro-Uranium-Film-Festival-2014-Program-English 
or go directly to the festival's brilliant website http://www.uraniumfilmfestival.org/en/  and follow their direct link to the programme.




 

Rio de Janeiro. The International Uranium Film Festival.

Yesterday, I saw the waves breaking on the shorerline of Rio de Janeiro.  I really did! Well, it was on EarthCam  Rio de Janeiro  If you have a moment, it's a lovely sight.... If I had really been there, I would have been making my way a little further up the coast to Flamengo Park and the Museum of Modern Arts where The Third International Uranium Film Festival  is being held.  They are showing forty eight films from a large number submitted this year from around twenty countries, too many for them all to be shown in the time. I always wonder about the forty ninth film.
This is one of those rare film festivals which shows films that the mainstream frequently seems to shy away from, often made by brave, deeply committed people who are determined that the truth should be heard and the victims given a voice. Even more bravely, when the victims themselves, speak out.
Like me, you don't have to go there to find out about them, the festival has a really amazing website. http://www.uraniumfilmfestival.org/index.php/en/ and if you go to their program, you can find out about individual films.
These people are making waves.