The Miranda Rights state that you have the right to remain silent.
Richland has all the trappings of a picturesque American small town.
It has diners, high school football, town parades and a smattering of hometown heroes and their kids and their kids’ kids. All this rests on contaminated land, from improper nuclear waste storage from the power plant that has driven the economy for the past half century. As it happens, the plant supplied plutonium for the atomic bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima at the end of the Second World War.
Director Irene Lusztig’s documentary “Richland” takes a look at the legacy of the nuclear history in the eponymous town.
Pierce under the facade of many towns in America and you’ll find a radioactive underbelly. There are unsavory and complex histories to contend with, dominating industries with questionable practices and deep ideological rifts between its denizens. So this isn’t a film just about a nuclear town. It captures a disturbance felt all over the country. Its subject town’s focal point, uranium enrichment, happens to be a great metaphor: it brings energy, death, destruction, longevity, decay, prosperity, blight, advancement, regress. You can use that array of terms for plenty of institutions that backbone the history of many towns in this country.
Richland carries baggage that sounds familiar to many places. Beyond the scope of nuclear debate, there are salient moments to today’s public conversation writ large. For example, high schoolers and their parents debate the appropriateness of having a mushroom cloud mascot for their school team “The Bombers.”
The film captures so well the universal essence of small industry town life. And it gives breath to all its nuances and perspectives by letting its inhabitants speak for themselves. We’re not subjected to lectures from proselytizing pro or anti nuclear talking heads. Instead, we sit down at a diner table or a high school quad or living room and hear what people have to say about Richland, until we get an illuminating mosaic of thoughtful positions and the people behind them.
“Richland” premiered at Tribeca Film Festival June 11.
The kingmakers have turned the cameras on themselves.
Vine and Vinyl is adding a little kick to wine tasting.
Nothing like friends to get you over your fears.
What happens when a never ending war ends?
Director Matthew Heineman captures the final months of the 20 year long war in Afghanistan in his new documentary “Retrograde.” Heineman is known for his Oscar-nominated doc “Cartel Land” and his narrative feature “A Private War.” His films are gonzo in the most dangerous and intimate of moments. His unfettered access lets you feel like you’re there — often in places you feel like you shouldn’t be.
“Fly on the wall” comes to mind when describing his films, but Heineman says he hates the term. “No offense to flies, but they don’t have a lot of agency,” he said. He, as a filmmaker, does, however. And he gained access to those “fly on the wall” shots by building trust with his subjects and pounding at bureaucratic hurdles and logistical setbacks.
After a Monday screening of “Retrograde”, the director sat down for a Q&A to discuss how the film came together.
“The goal is to become part of the fabric of the daily lives of our subjects so they can be comfortable,” said Heineman of his style of filmmaking. “You can have those surprising human moments you would never ever get if you just helicoptered in and tried to film.”
Heinman put himself in some life threatening situations. “A lot of people think I’m this adrenaline junkie and love getting shot at, which I don’t —for the record. I don’t do this for the thrill of it,” he said. “If you’re risking your life for something it has to be for some form of a greater purpose or story I really believe in.”
He recounted the filming of a scene where he’s backseat in a helicopter in a particularly dangerous area. The Taliban began firing. He said, “When you’re in the helicopter and rockets are being shot at you there is no object button. There is no I want to go home. You are there. You’re in it.”
He continued, “In those situations the only thing I have agency over is my camera. And that is what I choose to focus on. I focus on framing and exposure. I’m mixing sound when I’m filming. Those are things I can control. If I’m going to risk my life to get a scene I’m going to get it right.”
“Retrograde” is produced by National Geographic and available for streaming on Disney +.
The monsters in horror movies get top billing.
Whether you’re Chris Hemsworth or a journalist for the Knockturnal we all get stressed out.
Spiders, taxes, birthday party planning and heights are amongst the top stressors. The last of which, got Chris Hemsworth and me sweating bullets.
National Geographic organized members of the media to scale Hudson Yards skyscraper with City Climb to promote their show “Limitless with Chris Hemsworth.” We strapped into a harness and up we went.
Dr. Module Akinola prepped us for the high altitude, high stress trek. Hemsworth also got the spiel. She appears in the first episode of the series to equip the “Thor” star with valuable de-stressing tools before he walks atop a Sydney skyscraper.
In the episode, and at Hudson Yards, she explained the box breathing method. Imagine a box. Start at one corner. Inhale for four seconds. On to the next corner. Hold your breath for four seconds. Next corner. Exhale for four seconds. Last corner. Hold for seconds. Repeat.
I did the exercise, as did Hemsworth, and made my way up. The piece de resistance was leaning over the edge of the skyscraper, stretching myself over all of New York City with two straps and a harness preventing me from plummeting hundreds of feet. Flouting the conventional wisdom of “don’t look down,” I indeed stared down at all the ant-size people walking around lower Manhattan.
Akinola, an Associate Professor at the Columbia Business School, spoke to The Knockturnal about her experience working with Hemsworth and National Geographic on the series as well as practical tips we can all use in our daily lives to calm down. One of the big takeaways from the interview, the episode and the series writ large is we all experience stress. As we do aging, death, illness, physical strain etc. You can be a Marvel superhero from Asgard and still face human challenges like the rest of us. The key is not to dread these as ailments, but to accept them as inevitable parts of humanity and learn to confront them.
It starts with the end.
National Geographic’s “Limitless with Chris Hemsworth” aired its sixth and final episode at the Jazz at the Lincoln Center premiere on Nov 15.
The show, which is available for streaming on Disney +, puts Hemsworth through physical trials — from high wire walks to ice plunges. The last episode, however, gives the “Thor” actor a trial of a more metaphysical nature.
The title is “Acceptance.” Hemsworth spends three days in a retirement community preparing for death. It’s a meditative episode to close out the stunt-filled series.
“I lost both my parents this year,” said series creator Darren Aronofsky at the post-screening panel. “As I was losing my mom, I watched it on the couch with my dad next door to my mom as she was passing. Half way through I paused and asked, ‘Is this ok?’ Because there’s a lot of heavy shit going on. He was like, ‘Yeah, keep it going.”
Aronofsky said watching the cut of the final episode was “extremely helpful” for him in coping with the deaths of his parents.
Along with “Limitless,” Aronofsky has been promoting his film “The Whale,” which premiered to plaudits at TIFF. It too deals with grief and family.
Hemsworth had family on his mind after the final episode. “It made me think about my family in a more intense way and my kids,” he said. “And not taking anything for granted.”
His big takeaway from making the series is to live in the present. “It’s the narrative in the past and the future that can scare us and become overwhelming,” he said.
An interactive reception followed the screening and panel. Attendees could take pictures in front of a green screen, strap on VR helmets to get a taste of the high octane thrills and take a seat in zero gravity chairs. The event kicked off with a man grappling down a rope from a cable car on the ceiling.
All six episodes are available for streaming on Disney +.