Courtesy/SALA
SALA News:
The Manhattan Project Film Series begins at 6 p.m. Saturday at SALA Event Center with a screening of “The Day After Trinity”. This award-winning 1981 documentary features interviews with Manhattan Project scientists and Trinity Test witnesses. A screening of a short selection from Hugh and Marge Bradner’s footage from wartime Los Alamos will precede the feature.
The Guest Emcees on Friday will be John Hopkins and possibly Linda Deck from the Bradbury Science Museum. A limited amount of tickets are expected to be available at the door for each of the films in the series.
The Manhattan Project Film Series, curated by Los Alamos historian Aimee Slaughter, explores how the Manhattan Project has been captured on film, by many people, and in many places: in historic footage, in documentaries, in Hollywood blockbusters, and more. Seven more films will be screened during the series through July 20. Aimee has volunteered her expertise and effort to select the films and line up guest emcees for the series.
The Manhattan Project Film Series is being sponsored by Suzette Fox and Paula Glover, co-owners of New Mexico Real Estate Group – Los Alamos. New Mexico Real Estate Group – Los Alamos is a locally-owned, full-service real estate company with offices located in the Small Business Center. “Their sponsorship has made it possible for 100% of the proceeds from series ticket sales to go to four Los Alamos non-profit history organizations,” SALA owner Allan Saenz said.
Beneficiary organizations are the Los Alamos Historical Society, the J. Robert Oppenheimer Memorial Committee, Friends of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park, and the Bradbury Science Museum Association. Through this effort, series pass sales have sold out and $7,000 was raised to support the organizations.
The Manhattan Project remains one of the most intriguing and controversial events in modern history. It was a time when a group of brilliant scientists came together in Los Alamos and elsewhere to develop the world’s first atomic bomb. It was a time of secrecy and intense pressure, with the fate of the world hanging in the balance. Decades later, the story of the Manhattan Project is still being told and retold from different perspectives. Witness the much anticipated upcoming July release of Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” scheduled to play at SALA beginning on July 20.
Leading up to that release, SALA’s Manhattan Project Film Series is a must-see for history buffs, science enthusiasts, people who appreciate great storytelling, and anyone interested in this pivotal moment in history. Audiences will experience a variety of filmmaker perspectives from the last 75 years of films telling stories about the Manhattan Project.
“We believe that this will be the first Manhattan Project Film Series that has ever been put together anywhere,” Saenz said. “We have no idea of how the story will be told in the upcoming Hollywood film, but by presenting a range of film perspectives through this series we think that viewers will benefit from the added context.”
Volunteer film series curator Aimee Slaughter works as a public historian, with strong interests in how communities engage with uncomfortable histories and in the history of radioactivity. She has training in history and in physics, and earned her PhD in the history of science, technology, and medicine from the University of Minnesota in 2013. She has shared and co-created stories from the history of Los Alamos with visitors and with locals for the past decade.
Do you want to go really deep? Aimee has prepared and offered the following details and suggested book pairings for the films in the series:
July 1, Saturday, 6 pm “The Day After Trinity” (1981, 89 minutes) plus Bradner footage (5 minutes)
Guest emcee: John Hopkins & possibly Linda Deck, Bradbury Science Museum
Suggested Book Pairings: Richard Rhodes, Making of the Atomic Bomb; Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin, American Prometheus; Ray Monk, A Life at the Center
July 6, Thursday, 6 pm “Tree Project Film” (2013, 29 min) and “Message From Hiroshima” (2015, 53 min)
Guest emcee: Sofie Hecht, documentary photographer
Suggested Book Pairings: John Hersey, Hiroshima; Keiji Nakazawa, Barefoot Gen
July 8, Saturday, 6 pm “The Beginning or The End” (1947, 112 minutes) Guest emcee: Todd Nickols, Los Alamos Historical Society
Suggested Book Pairings: Greg Mitchell, The Beginning or The End; Richard Rhodes, Making of the Atomic Bomb
July 9, Sunday, 3 pm “Doctor Atomic” (2008, 166 minutes with intermission)
Guest emcee: Terry Beery, Los Alamos Opera Guild
Suggested Book Pairings: Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin, American Prometheus; Ray Monk, A Life at the Center
July 13, Thursday, 6 pm “The Catcher Was a Spy” (2018, 98 minutes, R) plus Alsos film reels (5 min)
Guest emcee: JJ Mortensen, J. Robert Oppenheimer Memorial Committee
Book Pairings: Nicholas Dawidoff, The Catcher Was a Spy; Samuel Goudsmit, Alsos; Jeremy Bernstein, Hitler’s Uranium Club
July 15, Saturday, 6 pm “Frankenstein vs. Baragon” (1965, 89 minutes)
Suggested Book Pairings: Spencer Weart, Nuclear Fear; Steven Rawle, Transnational Kaiju
July 16, Sunday, 3 pm “Fat Man and Little Boy” (1989, 127 minutes, PG-13)
Guest emcee: Dan Cordle, virtually from Nottingham Trent University
Suggested Book Pairings: Richard Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb; Daniel Cordle, States of Suspense
The series is scheduled to wrap up on July 20 with a double feature by New Mexico filmmaker Larry Sheffield (the Guest emcee); “Trinity After Oppenheimer” and “Alamagordo, Center of the World, Trinity 1945”, although there may be an adjustment to the schedule because of the schedule for the premiere of “Oppenheimer.”
For more information and schedule, visit https://sala.losalamos.com/the-manhattan-project-on-film-then-now/
Courtesy/SALA