The First Secret City(2015)
The secret is out.
Before the creation of the secret cities of Los Alamos, Oak Ridge and Hanford, the Manhattan Project hired the Mallinckrodt Chemical Works of St. Louis to refine the first uranium used in the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. For the next two decades, Mallinckrodt continued its classified work for the Atomic Energy Commission during the Cold War. The resulting radioactive waste contaminated numerous locations in the St. Louis area some of which have not been cleaned up 70 years after the end of World War II. Told through the eyes of an overexposed worker, the story expands through a series of interviews that careen down a toxic pathway leading to a fiery terminus at a smoldering, radioactively-contaminated landfill. The First Secret City reveals a forgotten history and its continuing impact on the community in the 21st Century, uncovering past wrongdoing and documenting the renewed struggles to confront the issue.
Movie: The First Secret City
Top 7 Billed Cast
Interviewee
Interviewee
Interviewee
Interviewee
Interviewee

The First Secret City
HomePage
Overview
Before the creation of the secret cities of Los Alamos, Oak Ridge and Hanford, the Manhattan Project hired the Mallinckrodt Chemical Works of St. Louis to refine the first uranium used in the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. For the next two decades, Mallinckrodt continued its classified work for the Atomic Energy Commission during the Cold War. The resulting radioactive waste contaminated numerous locations in the St. Louis area some of which have not been cleaned up 70 years after the end of World War II. Told through the eyes of an overexposed worker, the story expands through a series of interviews that careen down a toxic pathway leading to a fiery terminus at a smoldering, radioactively-contaminated landfill. The First Secret City reveals a forgotten history and its continuing impact on the community in the 21st Century, uncovering past wrongdoing and documenting the renewed struggles to confront the issue.
Release Date
2015-11-15
Average
0
Rating:
0.0 startsTagline
The secret is out.
Genres
Languages:
Keywords
Similar Movies

Eating Our Way to Extinction(en)
With searing insight that shines light in dark corners, EATING OUR WAY TO EXTINCTION is a compelling feature documentary that opens the lid on the elephant in the room no one wants to talk about. Confronting and entertaining, this documentary allows audiences to question their everyday choices, industry leaders and governments. Featuring a wealth of world-renowned contributors including Sir Richard Branson and Tony Robbins, it has a message of hope that will empower audiences.

Containment(en)
Every nuclear weapon made, every watt of electricity produced from a nuclear power plant leaves a trail of nuclear waste that will last for the next four hundred generations. We face the problem of how to warn the far distant future of the nuclear waste we have buried --but how to do it? How to imagine the far-distant threats to the sites, what kinds of monuments can be built, could stories or legends safeguard our descendants? Filmed at the only American nuclear burial ground, at a nuclear weapons complex and in Fukushima, the film grapples with the ways people are dealing with the present problem and imagining the future. Part observational essay, part graphic novel, this documentary explores the idea that over millennia, nothing stays put.

The Story of Yanagawa's Canals(ja)
A partially-animated documentary about the preservation and restoration of the canal system in Yanagawa, Fukuoka

Grit(id)
When Dian was six years old, she heard a deep rumble and turned to see a tsunami of mud barreling towards her village. Her mother scooped her up to save her from the boiling mud. Her neighbors ran for their lives. Sixteen villages, including Dian's, were wiped away, forever buried under 60 feet of mud. A decade later, 60,000 people have been displaced from what was once a thriving industrial and residential area in East Java. Dozens of factories, schools and mosques are completely submerged under a moonscape of ooze and grit. The cause? Lapindo, an Indonesian company drilling for natural gas in 2006, unleashed a violent, unstoppable flow of hot sludge from the earth's depths. It is estimated that the mudflow will not end for another decade. Shot over the course of six years, GRIT bears witness to Dian's transformation from young girl to a politically active teenager as she and her mother launch a resistance campaign against the drilling company.

Lobster War(en)
The story of a climate-fueled conflict between the United States and Canada over waters that both countries have claimed since the end of the Revolutionary War. The disputed 277 square miles of sea, known as the Gray Zone, were traditionally fished by US lobstermen. But as the Gulf of Maine has warmed faster than nearly any other body of water on the planet, the area’s previously modest lobster population has surged. As a result, Canadians have begun to assert their sovereignty, warring with the Americans to claim the bounty.
Let's Do It!(en)
“Let’s Do It!” is a story about how a national cleanup campaign in a small European country grew into an ambitious global environmental movement. The idea spread far and wide, bringing about new wave of civic activism in many countries. However, even good initiatives can hit rough spots. The important thing is not to lose hope. This documentary captures the passion to change the world over the course of 10 years, culminating in World Clean-Up Day in 2018. The movie also showcases how grass-root initiatives can grow and subside and how some ambitions can be defeated only to give rise to even more ambitious ones.

Chernobyl, Fukushima: Living with the Legacy(fr)
30 years after the Chernobyl catastrophe and 5 years after Fukushima it is time to see what has been happening in the “exclusion zones” where the radioactivity rate is far above normal.

Alternate Spaces(en)
A short documentary on the River Ouse, following it downstream from Lewes to Newhaven, meditating on the surrounding area.
Public Shelter Organization and Staff(en)
Created in 1963 at the height of the Cold War, this Civil Defense training film uses a dramatic premise to show how emergency staff should manage and organize a large public fallout shelter during a crisis. A Shelter Manager is shown immediately taking control of the situation in the shelter, speaking calmly to those who have made it into the facility, closing the door promptly once the shelter is full, and sticking to the "shelter plan" as the situation unfolds. Some of the areas discussed in this nuclear war drama are the safety plan, regular inspections, supervised public entry into shelters, ventilation, first aid, sanitation, fire prevention, decontamination of personnel, and more. "Shelter living is different," the Manager states, "But we have a trained staff that will make your stay in this shelter livable for us all."

Clairton Coke Works, Clean Up Our Air(en)
Clairton, Pennsylvania was once a populated town; booming with business and a clear sense of community. Many jobs came through the Clairton Coke Works Plant. Coke is used in the process of making steel. As decades went on, citizens began experiencing asthma problems, lung cancer, and many deaths in their families. The effects of air pollution in violation of EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) regulations became persistent in every household; many relocated. However, those who stay with the help of PennFuture want to put an end to these violations and regain their community.

Biosludged(en)
Biosludged reveals how the EPA is committing science fraud to allow the ongoing poisoning of our world with toxic sewage sludge that's being spread on food crops. Features former top government scientist and EPA whistleblower Dr. David Lewis.

Beyond Beauty: Taiwan from Above(zh)
Documenting Taiwan from an aerial perspective offering a glimpse of Taiwan's natural beauty as well as the effect of human activities and urbanization on our environment.

Visions of Europe(en)
Twenty-five films from twenty-five European countries by twenty-five European directors.

Chernobyl: 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.

Double Barrel(en)
Double Barrel follows surf and travel journalist Angie Takanami’s journey to Peru to document Peruvian surf guide Harold Koechlin’s dream of protecting Peru’s world-class surf breaks. After a chance meeting, the two compared tales of living through natural and human-inflicted disasters, and their dreams for sustainable surf development and tourism. Focussed in the oil-dominated town of Lobitos, Harold is working together with the local and international community and is determined to preserve the locals’ right to a clean ocean and environment to give towns like Lobitos a more sustainable future.

Ways of Knowing: A Navajo Nuclear History(en)
The American Southwest holds a dark legacy as the place where nuclear weapons were invented and built. Navajo people have long held this place sacred, and continue to fight for a future that transcends historical trauma. This is their story.

100 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.

Uncovering Fukushima(en)
It follows a group of investigators as they return to the nuclear zone in Fukushima to uncover the secrets behind the wildlife that has claimed the toxic environment as its own.

Freshwater World(en)
This documentary explores a variety of projects undertaken by scientists at Environment Canada's Freshwater Institute in Winnipeg to study the processes that pollute or disrupt clean and balanced freshwater environments.