I got this great message the other day from Márcia Gomes de Oliveira, the director of the Uranium film festival of Rio de Janeiro. I learned a bit about the role of nuclear power in South America, amongst other things, and I thought you all might appreciate the Eco-info. Here’s what Marcia had to say…
Please note that the following copy is an email sent to us and contains information that may not reflect the views of the staff at greenmi.net. The author can answer any questions you need and her email address can be found at the bottom of the post.
Uranium film festival of Rio de Janeiro Info
“We are seeking support for the first Uranium Film Festival of Rio de Janeiro - scheduled for the end of May 2011. For the first time in history Brazilians will be able to see international Anti-Nuclear-Documentaries in cinema. The film and video festival “Urânio em Movi(e)mento – 1st International World Uranium Film Festival Rio de Janeiro 2011” will help to bring the Uranium- and Nuclear Question into the national and international public. Actual Brazil and all South America experiences a new boom of nuclear energy and uranium mining projects, without any important movement against it. Because the population is not yet well informed about the radioactive nuclear risks. Today the Brazilian government is building the third nuclear power plant in Rio de Janeiro, Angra 3, and the first nuclear submarine of Latin America – everything with the help of France and the well-known AREVA. Also the government is planning the next nuclear power plants number 4 and 5 in the Northeast of Brazil and new uranium mines are planned also. Today Brazil has an abandoned uranium mine in Minas Gerais, since 2000 an operating uranium mine in Bahia and soon a new uranium mine in Ceará. Beside of all that Brazil created strategic nuclear partnerships not only with Argentine, but especially with South Africa and India.
So it is important to inform the public. In a democracy only “we the people” can change things and can stop nuclear power plants, nuclear submarines or uranium mining. Only people who are well informed about the nuclear risks are willing to stop it, so the uranium question is first at all an information question.
Until today most of the documentaries about uranium and the nuclear risks are mainly in English, German or French – but not in Portuguese. So the second advantage of the Uranium Film Festival project is to subtitle the films to create the so called Yellow Archive. Yellow is the colour of Uranium and for that a symbol for the whole nuclear industry. The Yellow Archive will be the first-ever film library in Brazil and Latin America dedicated to environmental films about the whole nuclear fuel chain organized by the Uranio em Movi(e)mento Festival. Believing that awareness is the first step in making positive changes to better our environment, the Yellow Archive hopes to increase public awareness. The DVDs will be used for non-profit, educational and research purposes. Especially schools, universities, environmental groups and other grass root movements will have access to the Yellow Archive.
Concerns regarding nuclear power and Uranium mining in Brazil have created a need for the first Uranium Film Festival taking place in Rio de Janeiro in 2011. Image courtesy of http://www.freewebs.com/leichik/science.htm
We think the Urânio em Movi(e)mento Festival is very important not only for Brazil, Latin America and other Portuguese speaking countries in Europe, Africa and Asia. The event in Rio de Janeiro also will help to bring the Uranium-Question into the international public world-wide. Rio de Janeiro is not only the real centre of the nuclear industry of Brazil and Latin America. Rio will be the centre of the next soccer world cup and the city of the next Olympic games and so the world is watching! And we should not forget that the important UNCED 1992 happened in Rio! And May 2012 when the “Rio+20 Earth Summit” proposed by President Lula will happen, Rio de Janeiro will be again in the focus of the environmental world and hopefully we will have parallel of that global event our second International World Uranium Film Festival Rio de Janeiro.
So please support our project!
It is not much we need.
But it will make a difference!
The organizers are Márcia Gomes de Oliveira, Norbert G. Suchanek and other concerned citizens of Brazil. The film festival Urânio em Movi(e)mento will happen in May 2011, 21th until 28th.
Email-contact: Marcia.Gomes@online.de
Does anyone else have any information about the Uranium film festival of Rio de Janeiro they would like to share?
