''Atomic, Living in Dread and Promise'' is a

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

about nuclear history directed by Mark Cousins and Produced by Heather Croall, Mark Atkin and John Archer. It uses only archive footage to explore life and death in the

atomic age The Atomic Age, also known as the Atomic Era, is the period of history following the detonation of the first nuclear weapon, The Gadget at the ''Trinity'' test in New Mexico, on July 16, 1945, during World War II. Although nuclear chain reaction ...

. The band

Mogwai Mogwai () are a Scottish post-rock band, formed in 1995 in Glasgow. The band consists of Stuart Braithwaite (guitar, vocals), Barry Burns (guitar, piano, synthesizer, vocals), Dominic Aitchison (bass guitar), and Martin Bulloch (drums). Mog ...

created the original soundtrack. The film, with a live performance by Mogwai, closed the

Edinburgh International Festival The Edinburgh International Festival is an annual arts festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, spread over the final three weeks in August. Notable figures from the international world of music (especially european classical music, classical music) and ...

in 2016. It was then shown on BBC Storyville to mark 70 years since the bombing of Hiroshima. The soundtrack was subsequently reworked by Mogwai into a studio album, ''Atomic''.

The film

Mark Cousins' montage explores the

bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki The United States detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945, respectively. The two bombings killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people, most of whom were civilians, and remain the onl ...

, the Chernobyl disaster, Fukushima disaster, and the

Three Mile Island accident The Three Mile Island accident was a partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island, Unit 2 (TMI-2) reactor in Pennsylvania, United States. It began at 4 a.m. on March 28, 1979. It is the most significant accident in U.S. commercial nuclea ...

. There are also protests: the

Aldermaston marches The Aldermaston marches were anti-nuclear weapons demonstrations in the 1950s and 1960s, taking place on Easter weekend between the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston in Berkshire, England, and London, over a distance of fifty ...

and

Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp was a series of protest camps established to protest against nuclear weapons being placed at RAF Greenham Common in Berkshire, England. The camp began on 5 September 1981 after a Welsh group, Women for Life ...

. The Cold War also features. The subject matter was particularly relevant to Scotland following the

independence referendum An independence referendum is a type of referendum in which the residents of a territory decide whether the territory should become an independent sovereign state. An independence referendum that results in a vote for independence does not alwa ...

, which highlighted the issue of nuclear weapons at Faslane as part of the UK's Trident nuclear programme.Edinburgh International Festival REVIEW - Mogwai Play Atomic ****
theedinburghreporter.co.uk, 31 August 2016, retrieved 12 October 2016 Footage used in the film also shows the benefits of atomic science, such as the

X-ray An X-ray, or, much less commonly, X-radiation, is a penetrating form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 10 picometers to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30&nb ...

and

MRI Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a medical imaging technique used in radiology to form pictures of the anatomy and the physiological processes of the body. MRI scanners use strong magnetic fields, magnetic field gradients, and radio waves ...

scans.

References

BBC television documentaries British television documentaries British documentary films 2015 documentary films 2015 films Documentary films about science Documentary films about the history of science BBC television documentaries about science Documentary films about nuclear technology Documentary films about nuclear war and weapons Documentary films about historical events Documentary films about disasters Films directed by Mark Cousins Films scored by Mogwai 2015 television films 2010s English-language films 2010s British films

External links

* {{hist-documentary-film-stub