The Nuns, the Priests, and the Bombs
PRESENTED BY: Backbone Meaningful Movies on Vashon
Nuclear disarmament activists challenge the security and legality of America’s nuclear weapons when they break into two top-secret facilities: the “Fort Knox of Uranium” and a U.S. Navy Trident nuclear submarine base. As we remember Hiroshima Day and the catastrophic use of nuclear weapons 74 years ago, we must ask as a society, are they criminals or are they prophets sending a wake-up call to the world?
“The Nuns, the Priests, and the Bombs” follows several activists, many from the Pacific Northwest, who risk long jail terms in their efforts to move the world away from the nuclear brink.
Since 1980 activists in lay and religious life have undertaken dramatic Plowshares protests, derived from the biblical injunction, “They shall beat their swords into Plowshares,” risking long prison sentences in an ongoing campaign to move the world away from the nuclear brink. This film follows two cases: the July 2012 break-in at the site known as America’s “Fort Knox of Uranium” where the intruders were an 82-year old Catholic nun and two fellow peace activists, and the 2009 Plowshares action in our own backyard, at Bangor, the U.S. naval base. The documentary follows activists’ legal efforts to justify their actions under international law and highlights the power of their moral conviction.
“In these dismal times when our nation is in a perpetual state of war and Donald Trump has his finger on the nuclear button, this film is just the jolt of inspiration we need.” –Medea Benjamin, CODEPINK
Special Guests: Members of the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action will speak after the screening about their work.
Sponsors: Island Green Tech Vashon Theatre
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/2020900954872790/
Release Year: 2017
Running Time: 106 minutes
Director: Helen Young
