Ten Seconds that Shook the World
1963 · 60m · Documentary
This film is a factual and chronological account of the events preceding the atomic bombing of Hiroshima during World War II and the significant effect of the atomic bomb on peacetime projects and events of the atomic age.
More Like This
Ways of Knowing: A Navajo Nuclear History
2025
The American Southwest holds a dark legacy as the place where nuclear weapons were invented and built. Navajo people have long held this place sacred, and continue to fight for a future that transcends historical trauma. This is their story.
More info →
Nuclear Rescue 911: Broken Arrows & Incidents
2001 · ★ 4.8
Since 1950, there have been 32 nuclear weapon accidents, known as "Broken Arrows." A Broken Arrow is defined as an unexpected event involving nuclear weapons that result in the accidental launching, firing, detonating, theft or loss of the weapon. To date, six nuclear weapons have been lost and never recovered.Now, recently declassified documents reveal the history and secrecy surrounding the events known as "Broken Arrows". There have been 32 nuclear weapon accidents since 1950. Six of these nuclear weapons have been lost and never recovered. What does this say about our defense system? What does this mean to our threatened environment? What do we do to rectify these monumental "mistakes"? Using spectacular special effects, newly uncovered and recently declassified footage, filmmaker Peter Kuran explores the accidents, incidents and exercises in the secret world of nuclear weapons.
More info →
Mystery Man of the A-Bomb
2023
Stories of the people who built the first atomic weapons are well known. But what about those who provided the uranium? We look at a mysterious man who derived huge profits from the business of war.
More info →
The Journey
1987 · ★ 4.6
Peter Watkins' global look at the impact of military use of nuclear technology and people's perception of it, as well as a meditation on the inherent bias of the media, and documentaries themselves.
More info →
Windscale 1957: The Nuclear Winter
1996
In October 1957, one of the Windscale nuclear reactors caught fire. It was the world's first nuclear accident, attributed to the rush to build atomic weapons. This programme highlights the mistakes leading to a nuclear event which, 40 years on, still takes second place only to Chernobyl.
More info →
In Time's Shadow
1995
Drawing upon eye-witness accounts from survivors and participants in the bombing of Hiroshima, this programme shows how both Japan and the United States are still facing enormous problems in coming to terms with the legacy of that fateful August day.
More info →
Rain of Ruin: The Bombing of Nagasaki
1995 · ★ 7
Scholars and eyewitnesses provide a picture of the 75 hours between the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and document the contradictions, interrelationships, and ambiguities of politics and military strategy in time of war.
More info →
Dark Circle
1982 · ★ 6
This documentary explores the connections between nuclear weapons production, nuclear power, and their human and environmental consequences. Through archival footage and interviews with residents living near the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant in Colorado—as well as survivors of atomic bombing and nuclear testing—Dark Circle traces the development of the atomic age and its lasting impact on communities exposed to radioactive contamination.
More info →
8000 Stolen Futures: The Children at the Center of the A-Bomb
2022
On August 6, 1945, the first-ever nuclear bomb deployed in war was dropped on the city of Hiroshima Prefecture, leaving an estimated 140,000 dead in its wake by the end of that year. Among the victims, one particular age group stands out for the sheer number of fatalities sustained: 12 and 13 year-olds, children of first year junior high school age. We investigate the tragedy of this lost generation, piecing together surviving records and speaking with survivors, for whom the memories of children robbed of their futures that day are still burned deep in their memories, nearly eight decades on.
More info →
Nuclear Nightmares
1979 · ★ 10
Peter Ustinov hosts this haunting 1980 documentary exploring the world's nuclear weaponry and the fragile system that deters either side from initiating the first nuclear strike. Although the world's political climate has mellowed since the Cold War era, Nuclear Nightmares takes the viewer back in time to gain a perspective of what it was like to live under a very real nuclear threat.
More info →
Women - For America, For the World
1986 · ★ 6.5
Twenty-two prominent American women discuss their activism for nuclear disarmament and their motivations in seeking the end of the arms race.
More info →
The Forgotten Bomb
2011
When the Cold War ended, worry about nuclear weapons receded. But has the nuclear threat really diminished? Join Bud Ryan on a personal and global journey to discover what the bomber can learn from the bombed, and what our prospects look like for finally living in a nuclear-free world. Features interviews with bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz, authors Gar Alperovitz and Jonathan Schell, and many more.
More info →