
Backs to the Blast: An Australian Nuclear Story(1981)
A document of Australia's nuclear industrial history, from uranium mining and its toxic legacy to the nuclear weapons tests conducted at Maralinga in South Australia.
Movie: Backs to the Blast: An Australian Nuclear Story

Backs to the Blast: An Australian Nuclear Story
HomePage
Overview
A document of Australia's nuclear industrial history, from uranium mining and its toxic legacy to the nuclear weapons tests conducted at Maralinga in South Australia.
Release Date
1981-06-01
Average
0
Rating:
0.0 startsTagline
Genres
Languages:
EnglishKeywords
Recommendations Movies
7.3Trinity and Beyond: The Atomic Bomb Movie(en)
"Trinity and Beyond" is an unsettling yet visually fascinating documentary presenting the history of nuclear weapons development and testing between 1945-1963. Narrated by William Shatner and featuring an original score performed by the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, this award-winning documentary reveals previously unreleased and classified government footage from several countries.
6.9Under the Sea 3D(en)
Imagine a world of incredible color and beauty. Of crabs wearing jellyfish for hats. Of fish disguised as frogs, stones and shag carpets. Of a kaleidoscope of life dancing and weaving, floating and darting in an underwater wonderland. Now, go explore it! Howard Hall and his filmmaking team, who brought you Deep Sea and Into the Deep, take you into tropical waters alive with adventure: the Great Barrier Reef and other South Pacific realms. Narrated by Jim Carrey and featuring astonishing camerawork, this amazing film brings you face to fin with Nature's marvels, from the terrible grandeur (and terrible teeth) of a Great White to the comic antics of a lovestruck cuttlefish. Excitement and fun run deep Under the Sea!
7.3Sidney(en)
This revealing documentary honors the legendary Sidney Poitier—iconic actor, filmmaker, and civil rights activist. Featuring interviews with Denzel Washington, Spike Lee, Halle Berry, and more.
7.2Into Eternity: A Film for the Future(en)
Every day, the world over, large amounts of high-level radioactive waste created by nuclear power plants is placed in interim storage, which is vulnerable to natural disasters, man-made disasters, and to societal changes. In Finland the world’s first permanent repository is being hewn out of solid rock – a huge system of underground tunnels - that must last 100,000 years as this is how long the waste remains hazardous.
7.3Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes(en)
Thirty-six years after the Chernobyl nuclear reactor exploded in Soviet Ukraine, newly uncovered archival footage and recorded interviews with those who were present paint an emotional and gripping portrait of the extent and gravity of the disaster and the lengths to which the Soviet government went to cover up the incident, including the soldiers sent in to “liquidate” the damage. Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes is the full, unvarnished true story of what happened in one of the least understood tragedies of the twentieth century.
6.5Downloaded(en)
A documentary that explores the downloading revolution; the kids that created it, the bands and the businesses that were affected by it, and its impact on the world at large.
6.8You Cannot Kill David Arquette(en)
Following his infamous championship as part of a marketing stunt for the film Ready to Rumble, David Arquette is widely known as the most hated man in pro-wrestling worldwide. Nearly 20 years after he "won" the initial title, through ups and downs in his career, with his family, and with his struggles with addiction, David Arquette seeks redemption by returning to the ring...for real this time.
6.0Nobody Speak: Trials of the Free Press(en)
The courtroom and publicity battles between the superstar wrestler and the notorious website explode in a sensational trial all about the limits of the First Amendment and the new no holds barred nature of celebrity life in an internet dominated society.
7.3Andre the Giant(en)
An ambitious and wide-ranging documentary exploring Andre’s upbringing in France, his celebrated career in WWE, and his forays in the entertainment world.
6.2Evil Influencer: The Jodi Hildebrandt Story(en)
Unravel the case of Utah therapist Jodi Hildebrandt, whose child abuse arrest with parenting YouTuber Ruby Franke exposed a twisted tale of manipulation.
6.2Lazareth(en)
Lee is an aunt whose life mission is to protect her orphaned nieces, Imogen and Maeve, from a self-destructing world, raising them in isolation until an outsider threatens their peaceful existence.
6.9Casting By(en)
This essential new documentary pays tribute to the legacy of the late, legendary casting director Marion Dougherty and shines a light on one of the most overlooked and least understood crafts in filmmaking.
6.8Looking for Richard(en)
Al Pacino's deeply-felt rumination on Shakespeare's significance and relevance to the modern world through interviews and an in-depth analysis of "Richard III."
5.9Memories of a Murderer: The Nilsen Tapes(en)
Serial killer Dennis Nilsen narrates his life and horrific crimes via a series of chilling audiotapes recorded from his jail cell.
7.4I Am Heath Ledger(en)
The life and career of an actor, artist, and icon. His own journey through his own camera.
6.8The Velvet Underground(en)
Experience the iconic rock band's legacy in the first major documentary to tell their story. Directed with the era’s avant-garde spirit by Todd Haynes, this kaleidoscopic oral history combines exclusive interviews with dazzling archival footage.
7.0White Boy(en)
“White Boy Rick”, as he was called, was a novelty: A white teenager seemingly running a major inner-city drug operation. In May of 1987, 17-year-old Richard Wershe Jr. was charged with a non-violent, juvenile drug offense. By the time of his arrest he was already a Detroit legend, frequently making front-page headlines and leading the local television news. In this film, gangsters, hit men, journalists and federal agents struggle to explain why he remains in prison at nearly 50 years old. The possible explanation is more stunning than the crimes Wershe was alleged to have committed.
6.9Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound(en)
The history of cinematic sound, told by legendary sound designers and visionary filmmakers.
7.1The Summers of It - Chapter Two: It Ends(en)
This documentary focuses on the actors and their journey over two summers to create the remake to the original IT, by Stephen King. The documentary originally released as bonus material, bundled with IT: Chapter Two.
Similar Movies
0.0Mururoa 1973(en)
In 1973 Alister Barry joined the crew of a protest boat (The Fri) to Mururoa Atoll, where the French Government were testing nuclear weapons. Barry records the assembly of the crew, the long journey from Northland, and their reception in the test zone; when The Fri was boarded and impounded by French military he had to hide his camera in a barrel of oranges.
0.0Mountain Spring: The Flinders Range(en)
Progress in South Australia manifests itself around the Flinders Range country in the industries of Whyalla, Port Pirie, Port Augusta, Leigh Creek and Aroona Dam. Wildflowers cover the countryside.
6.0We Are the Guinea Pigs(en)
Farmers and parents of young children, who live in the Harrisburg, Pa., area, discuss their fears of radioactive contamination from the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor accident in 1979. Scientists and physicians also expound on the lethal dangers of nuclear power and the risks in containment processes.
5.8Broken Rainbow(en)
Documentary chronicling the government relocation of 10,000 Navajo Indians in Arizona.
8.0The Boat and the Bomb(en)
In Aukland Harbour, New Zealand, on July 10th 1985, French navy combat frogmen placed two mines against the hull of the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior, sinking the ship and killing photographer Fernando Pereira.
7.5NUKED(en)
The US detonated 67 nuclear weapons over the Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands during the Cold War, the consequences of which still reverberate down four generations to today. "NUKED," is a timely new feature documentary focussing on the human victims of the nuclear arms race, tracing the displaced Bikinian's ongoing struggle for justice and survival even as climate change poses a new existential threat. Using carefully restored archival footage to resurrect contemporaneous islanders’ voices and juxtaposing these with the full, awesome fury of the nuclear detonations, NUKED starkly contrasts the official record with the lived experience of the Bikinians themselves, serving as an important counterpoint to this summer’s Oppenheimer.
7.1Hiroshima(en)
The documentary recounts the world's first nuclear attack and examines the alarming repercussions. Covering a three-week period from the Trinity test to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the program chronicles America's political gamble and the planning for the momentous event. Archival film, dramatizations, and special effects feature what occurred aboard the Enola Gay (the aircraft that dropped the bomb) and inside the exploding bomb.
7.1Nuclear Now(en)
With unprecedented access to the nuclear industry in France, Russia, and the United States, Nuclear Now explores the possibility for the global community to overcome the challenges of climate change and energy poverty to reach a brighter future through the power of nuclear energy. Beneath our feet, Uranium atoms in the Earth’s crust hold incredibly concentrated energy. Science unlocked this energy in the mid-20th century, first for bombs and then to power submarines. The United States led the effort to generate electricity from this new source. Yet in the mid-20th century as societies began the transition to nuclear power and away from fossil fuels, a long-term PR campaign to scare the public began, funded in part by coal and oil interests.
5.3The Conqueror: Hollywood Fallout(en)
The story of one of the great environmental disasters to befall the United States, and the terrible movie that helped bring the catastrophe to light.
0.0Mystery Man of the A-Bomb(en)
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.
0.0Test of a clean hydrogen bomb with a yield of 50 megatons(ru)
Documentary movie about testing of the largest nuclear weapon in history, the Tsar Bomba. Declassified and made available to the public in 2020.
7.8Azure Dust - Inside Chernobyl's Exclusion Zone(en)
The story about Chornobyl area, all around the world we know of the disaster in 1986. The film may be called a guide to the Exclusion Zone. Thanks to the unique footage from the place of the tragedy, that the crew succeeded to capture, the viewers will have a chance for a full immersion into the atmosphere of the events and, along with the heroes of the film, feel the dreadful and amazing air that reigns where one of the major anthropogenic disasters took place.
7.0Under the Cloud(en)
An investigation into the unfolding history of nuclear testing, uranium mining, and nuclear waste disposal on indigenous lands in the US. It raises the voices of those who witnessed and experienced the consequences of nuclear colonialism and those who still resist.
0.0The Four Corners: A National Sacrifice Area?(en)
Documents the cultural and ecological impacts of coal stripmining, uranium mining, and oil shale development in Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona – homeland of the Hopi and Navajo.
5.8Radium City(en)
Documentary about the Radium Dial Company and the aftereffects experienced by its workers from repeated exposure to radioactive paint.
6.3100 Years of the Atom(fr)
The exciting story of the splitting of the atom, a scientific breakthrough of incalculable importance that ushered in the nuclear age, has a dark side: the many events in which people were exposed to radiation, both intentionally and by accident.
Arlit: The Second Paris(fr)
Documentary on the lives and hopes of the people living in Arlit, Niger and working in its uranium mine.
7.7Into the Grand Canyon(en)
Two journalists traverse the Grand Canyon by foot, hoping this 750-mile walk will help them better understand one of America's most revered landscapes and the threats poised to alter it forever.
8.0Silent Storm(en)
From 1957 to 1978, scientists secretly removed bone samples from over 21,000 dead Australians as they searched for evidence of the deadly poison, Strontium 90 - a by-product of nuclear testing. Silent Storm reveals the story behind this astonishing case of officially sanctioned "body-snatching". Set against a backdrop of the Cold War, the saga follows celebrated scientist, Hedley Marston, as he attempts to blow the whistle on radioactive contamination and challenge official claims that British atomic tests posed no threat to the Australian people. Marston's findings are not only disputed, he is targeted as "a scientist of counter-espionage interest". Now, questions are being raised about the health repercussions for generations of Australians.


