''Bomb Harvest'' is a 2007
documentary film
A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...
directed by Australian filmmaker
Kim Mordaunt
Kim Mordaunt
is a well known Australian director, cinematographer and actor who comes from a documentary background. He graduated from UTS (University of Technology, Sydney) and got a diploma in acting from LAMDA ( London Academy of Music and Dr ...
and produced by
Sylvia Wilczynski. It explores the consequences of war in
Laos
Laos (, ''Lāo'' )), officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic ( Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ, French: République démocratique populaire lao), is a socialist ...
as it follows an Australian bomb disposal specialist, training locals in the skill of detonating bombs while trying to stop villagers, particularly children, from finding them and using them for scrap metal.
During the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
, Laos was the target of the heaviest US bombing campaign, making Laos the most bombed country in history: from 1964 until 1973 more than two million tonnes of bombs were dropped, including 260 million cluster munitions. An estimated 30% of the bombs dropped failed to detonate as intended.
Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) continues to kill and injure people, and, as a consequence of large tracts of land (with evidence of UXOs) being sealed off, the local population are prevented from using it, including for the vital purpose of growing food. Casualties and deaths are still frequently reported, particularly amongst children and adolescents who are tempted into the restricted areas for many reasons, for example: to recapture livestock, to forage or to attempt to retrieve scrap metal, which is still a lucrative business. UXO is a key causative factor in the continuing high levels of poverty and is seen as stifling the economic and agricultural development of the country.
''Bomb Harvest'' explores how three generations of people have been left to deal with the consequences of the
air war, and depicts the bravery of those trying to clear up its remnants.
The film crew spent two months on the ground with bomb disposal teams from the
Mines Advisory Group
The Mines Advisory Group (MAG) is a non-governmental organization that assists people affected by landmines, unexploded ordnance, and small arms and light weapons.
MAG takes a humanitarian approach to landmine action. They focus on the impact ...
as they dealt with live bombs, in areas of Laos which have never been filmed in before. The film premiered at the 2007 Sydney Film Festival, and won a Children's Advocacy award at the 2008
Artivist Film Festival
The Artivist Film Festival & Awards is an international film festival and awards ceremony dedicated to recognizing activist efforts of filmmakers, specifically in the areas of human rights, child advocacy, environmental preservation, and animal ri ...
.
See also
*
Cluster Munition Coalition
The Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) is an international civil society movement, which campaigns against the use, production, stockpiling, and transfer of cluster munitions. Cluster munitions, a type of munition stockpiled by more than 80 states, ...
*
Convention on Cluster Munitions
The Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) is an international treaty that prohibits all use, transfer, production, and stockpiling of cluster bombs, a type of explosive weapon which scatters submunitions ("bomblets") over an area. Additionally, ...
*
History of Laos
Evidence for modern human presence in the northern and central highlands of Indochina, that constitute the territories of the modern Laotian nation-state dates back to the Lower Paleolithic. These earliest human migrants are Australo-Melanesian ...
*
International Campaign to Ban Landmines
The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) is a coalition of non-governmental organizations whose stated objective is a world free of anti-personnel mines and cluster munitions, where mine and cluster munitions survivors see their right ...
*
Iron harvest, the collection of unexploded munitions and other metal objects by farmers in areas of France and Belgium that were host to battles during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
on the
Western Front
*
Operation Barrel Roll
Operation Barrel Roll was a covert U.S. Air Force 2nd Air Division and U.S. Navy Task Force 77, interdiction and close air support campaign conducted in the Kingdom of Laos between 14 December 1964 and 29 March 1973 concurrent with the Viet ...
*
Plain of Jars
The Plain of Jars ( Lao: ທົ່ງໄຫຫິນ ''Thong Hai Hin'', ) is a megalithic archaeological landscape in Laos. It consists of thousands of stone jars scattered around the upland valleys and the lower foothills of the central plain of ...
References
External links
Film Web Site*
Legacies of War Exhibition
Australian documentary films
Documentary films about politics
Documentary films about war
2007 films
History of Laos (1945–present)
Documentary films about the Vietnam War
2007 documentary films
Laos–United States relations
Films directed by Kim Mordaunt
2000s English-language films
{{Australia-documentary-film-stub