Nuclear Nightmares
β 10 Β· 1979 Β· 89m Β· Documentary
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 Like This

The Helsinki Effect
2025 Β· β 7.5
The Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) was the starting point for the slow but sure collapse of communist authoritarian rule in Eastern Europe. The Helsinki Effect offers new perspectives on the events of the Cold War. The film tells the story of the CSCE process, which had a major impact on the end of the Cold War, and sheds light on secret top-level discussions behind closed doors, through voice simulations using artificial intelligence.
More info β
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 β
How the Beatles Rocked the Kremlin
2009 Β· β 6.5
In August 1962, director Leslie Woodhead made a two-minute film in Liverpool's Cavern Club with a raw and unrecorded group of rockers called the Beatles. He arranged their first live TV appearances on a local show in Manchester and watched as the Fab Four phenomenon swept the world. Twenty-five years later while making films in Russia, Woodhead became aware of how, even though they were never able to play in the Soviet Union, the Beatles' legend had soaked into the lives of a generation of kids. This film meets the Soviet Beatles generation and hears their stories about how the Fab Four changed their lives, including Putin's deputy premier Sergei Ivanov, who explains how the Beatles helped him learn English and showed him another life. (Storyville)
More info β
Cold War Peacemaker: The Story of the Convair B-36
2015
Cold War Peacemaker is the amazing and unique story of the development of the B-36 very-long-long-range nuclear bomber. From its beginnings during WWII, through construction in a former wild-west cattle town and deployment into the Cold War, the story of the Convair B-36 and how it intimidated the Soviet Union is a fascinating study in politics and technology. In Cold War Peacemaker, experience life during the Cold War as your parents and grandparents lived it and discover and understand how the Convair B-36 played a vital role in saving the free world from communist domination.
More info β
The Day Called X
1957
Portentously portrays the evacuation of Portland, Oregon, when threatened by a nuclear attack on its state-of-the-art civil defense system.
More info β
11 Steps to Survival
1973 Β· β 7
A film demonstrating steps to take in the event of a nuclear attack. Animated drawings show the effects of atomic explosions in the air and at ground level. How wide an area is affected by light and heat flash, radiation and radioactive fall-out are clearly illustrated. How to build or improvise a fall-out shelter, what to stock in it, when to take shelter and how long to stay there are similarly explained. Produced by the National Film Board of Canada for Emergency Planning Canada.
More info β

The Journey
1987 Β· β 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 β
Highway
2024
Found-footage short film about the paths connecting our global lives. Also, a plea against genocide.
More info β
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 β
Animated Soviet Propaganda
1997 Β· β 3
A landmark four disc Box Set - Unearthed from Moscow's legendary Soyuzmultfilm Studios, the 41 films in ANIMATED SOVIET PROPAGANDA span sixty years of Soviet history (1924 - 1984), and have never been available before in the U.S.
More info βPlanning For Emergence From Public Shelters
1963
A training film for public shelter managers explaining when people should be allowed to leave the shelter after a disaster.
More info β