White Light/Black Rain

Sunday October 2nd 2011 | 15.15
De Balie | Kleine zaal
English Subtitles

Japan, USA - 86 min – 2007

White Light/Black Rain

As global tensions rise, the unthinkable could be possible. The threat of nuclear weapons of mass destruction has become frighteningly real. White Light/Black Rain: The destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki details the human costs of atomic warfare and stands as a powerful warning that with enough present-day nuclear weapons worldwide to equal 400,000 Hiroshimas, we cannot afford to forget what happened on those two days in 1945. 

White Light/Black Rain, by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Steven Okazaki, looks at the reality of nuclear warfare with first-hand accounts from those who survived and those whose lives were forever changed by the atomic bomb. Steven Okazaki met more than 500 survivors and interviewed more than 100 before choosing 14 people for the film. Featuring interviews with those fourteen atomic bomb survivors, many of whom have never spoken publicly before, and four Americans intimately involved in the bombings, White Light/Black Rain provides a detailed exploration of the bombings and their aftermath. In a succession of riveting personal accounts, the film reveals both unimaginable suffering and extraordinary human resilience. 

Painter: Akiko Takakura

Director/script/producer: Steven Okazaki
With: Harold Agnew, Dr. Shuntaro Hida, Kiyoko Imori, Morris Jeppson, Lawrence Johnston, Pan Yeon Kim, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a.o.
Executive producers: Robert Richter, Sheila Nevins
Co-producers: Taro Goto, Atsuko Shigesawa
Cinematography: Masafumi Kawasaki
Sound: Yuki Fukuda
Camera: Masafumi Ichinose
Editor: Geof Bartz
Production: Farallon Films