“A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought”
—President Ronald Reagan in 1982 after the introduction of the Freeze resolution to Congress
J. Robert Oppenheimer at the Guest Lodge, Oak Ridge, in 1946, February 1946, Photographed by Ed Wescott, Image sourced from the DOE Digital Archive 2017659
Contextualization of the Film “Oppenheimer”
The story of J. Robert Oppenheimer and his colleagues from The Manhattan Project are cautionary tales of the perils of unfettered technological advances and an uninformed, disempowered public. Preceding the release of Christopher Nolan’s major motion picture about the lead scientists for The Manhattan Project, Reverse the Trend’s “Shades of Disarmament” Film Festival aims to show that mass mobilization and an informed public are essential to showing governments that human lives are not pawns to be sacrificed in war.
Following the Trinity Test and subsequent atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, governments the world over took advantage of the general public’s lack of awareness and education on the lethal consequences of producing, owning, and using nuclear weapons. Regarded as “a necessary evil” by those in power, today’s public has been reminded by the ongoing conflict in Ukraine how precarious nuclear weapons possession truly is. “Shades of Disarmament” Film Festival will now only reveal the reality of nuclear weapons that continues to be suppressed but also showcase actionable steps any person on Earth can do to help dismantle global nuclear stockpiles.
History of The 1982 Freeze Movement
Forty-one years ago, organizers called the June 12, 1982 demonstration, “the disarmament rally to end all disarmament rallies.” The purpose of the march was to show support for the United Nations Second Special Session on Disarmament, to call for a reduction of all nuclear weapons, and a transfer of military budgets to human needs. In the end, the June 12th demonstration became the largest rally in United States history with one million people demanding an end to the arms race. This historic event represents the height of the antinuclear movement, which was perhaps the most successful citizen led movement in U.S. history.
The diverse voices that were heard on June 12th, helped pave the way for a new movement in the twenty-first century, led primarily by women and younger activists who view eliminating racism, patriarchy, and nuclear weapons as part of the same fight in creating a more just and equal world. With the forty-first anniversary of the June 12th rally just behind us, the historic Treaty to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons entering into force on January 22, 2021, and the premiere of Christopher Nolan’s biopic Oppenheimer slated for the day after this film festival, it is important to look back at a time when citizens mobilized to halt the arms race, pushed leaders of the two biggest nuclear powers to act, and moved the world closer to peace.
