January 8, 2024
FILM: FIRST WE BOMBED NEW MEXICO
DIRECTED BY: LOIS LIPMAN
RATING: 3 ½ out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
As Oscar season is heating up Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer has become a leading contender for several big awards. (It won five at the Golden Globes last night.) That film tells the story of the development and testing of the atomic bomb before it’s dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. There’s been a lot of examination of the effects the bomb had on those cities but what about those affected in New Mexico? The new documentary, First We Bombed New Mexico aims to illustrate how so many residents miles from the testing site have been afflicted with an unusual number of cancer cases since then. It’s a very eye-opening and informative film with a central concern that has still not been resolved almost 80 years later.
Writer/Director Lois Lipman does a great job of presenting the facts through a series of interviews with people who have been diagnosed with multiple cancers over the years and/or have lost an inordinate amount of family members to the disease. The primary focus here is on Tina Cordova, herself a cancer survivor, who has been fighting for justice and compensation for those affected by the bomb and nuclear tests. During the film, she heads to Washington to testify to the U.S. Senate on her community’s behalf. Among the politicians seen at the hearing are Senator Cory Booker and now Vice President Kamala Harris. Whether their prominence has any effect on the needed expensive legislation remains unresolved.
What’s interesting here too is Lipman’s perspective on the reason the residents of New Mexico have not been properly compensated: they are brown-skinned and mostly of Mexican descent. The theory is that the U.S. Government wasn’t concerned about these less privileged communities. Her position is generally well supported without anyone vocally supporting a contrary viewpoint.
Lipman also includes discussion by survivors and researchers about how these people became “downwinders” after the testing. In other words, many lived miles from the testing site and in the path of the winds that carried the radiation poisoning into the air, ground, and water and they’ve been ingesting it ever since.
The film makes for an interesting companion to Nolan’s film. Archival footage of Robert Oppenheimer is also present offering additional insights into how his work remains ever more relevant today.
There is a lot of powerful emotion in the film as we hear the many stories of lives lost due to the testing and long-lasting effects of Oppenheimer and the government’s work. Generally these details are necessary and enlightening but tend to be a bit repetitive and could be tightened up through some additional editing. Still, the film shines a light on something we should all be more aware of as it takes us a step beyond what Nolan brought to audiences with his portrait of Oppenheimer. The after effects of this nuclear testing in the 1940s still need a lot of attention and support.
First We Bombed New Mexico is having its West Coast premiere at the Palm Springs International Film Festival today through Jan. 10.
FILM: FIRST WE BOMBED NEW MEXICO
DIRECTED BY: LOIS LIPMAN
RATING: 3 ½ out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
As Oscar season is heating up Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer has become a leading contender for several big awards. (It won five at the Golden Globes last night.) That film tells the story of the development and testing of the atomic bomb before it’s dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. There’s been a lot of examination of the effects the bomb had on those cities but what about those affected in New Mexico? The new documentary, First We Bombed New Mexico aims to illustrate how so many residents miles from the testing site have been afflicted with an unusual number of cancer cases since then. It’s a very eye-opening and informative film with a central concern that has still not been resolved almost 80 years later.
Writer/Director Lois Lipman does a great job of presenting the facts through a series of interviews with people who have been diagnosed with multiple cancers over the years and/or have lost an inordinate amount of family members to the disease. The primary focus here is on Tina Cordova, herself a cancer survivor, who has been fighting for justice and compensation for those affected by the bomb and nuclear tests. During the film, she heads to Washington to testify to the U.S. Senate on her community’s behalf. Among the politicians seen at the hearing are Senator Cory Booker and now Vice President Kamala Harris. Whether their prominence has any effect on the needed expensive legislation remains unresolved.
What’s interesting here too is Lipman’s perspective on the reason the residents of New Mexico have not been properly compensated: they are brown-skinned and mostly of Mexican descent. The theory is that the U.S. Government wasn’t concerned about these less privileged communities. Her position is generally well supported without anyone vocally supporting a contrary viewpoint.
Lipman also includes discussion by survivors and researchers about how these people became “downwinders” after the testing. In other words, many lived miles from the testing site and in the path of the winds that carried the radiation poisoning into the air, ground, and water and they’ve been ingesting it ever since.
The film makes for an interesting companion to Nolan’s film. Archival footage of Robert Oppenheimer is also present offering additional insights into how his work remains ever more relevant today.
There is a lot of powerful emotion in the film as we hear the many stories of lives lost due to the testing and long-lasting effects of Oppenheimer and the government’s work. Generally these details are necessary and enlightening but tend to be a bit repetitive and could be tightened up through some additional editing. Still, the film shines a light on something we should all be more aware of as it takes us a step beyond what Nolan brought to audiences with his portrait of Oppenheimer. The after effects of this nuclear testing in the 1940s still need a lot of attention and support.
First We Bombed New Mexico is having its West Coast premiere at the Palm Springs International Film Festival today through Jan. 10.