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Countdown to Zero

United States

2010

91 Min
Color, Black and White
1.85:1
English
  • Currently 3.5/5 Stars.
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DIR Lucy Walker

EXEC Jeff Anderson, Diane Weyermann, Bruce Blair, Matt Brown

PROD Lawrence Bender

DP Robert Chappell, Gary Clarke, Bryan Donnell

ED Brad Fuller, Brian Johnson

MUSIC Peter Golub

Sundance (Spotlight), Cannes (Special Screenings), San Sebastián (Zabaltegi Specials), Edinburgh (Document), Stockholm (Documania), Ghent (World Cinema)

Synopsis

During the cold war, public consciousness fixated on the atomic bomb. Then the cold war ended, and we retreated into denial. In fact, the danger of nuclear annihilation never disappeared; it only swelled. Countdown to Zero sweeps us into a scorching, hypnotic journey around the world to reveal the palpable possibility of nuclear disaster and frame an issue on which human survival itself hangs.

Scientists, world leaders, and security experts—including Valerie Plame herself—expose the absurdities and alarming realities of the situation. The 1990s heralded a second nuclear age. Many countries and terrorist groups are now actively acquiring fissile materials and construction blueprints. The possibility of an accident or miscalculation looms even larger. As the film projects a startling vision, interviews with Jimmy Carter, Mikhail Gorbachev, Tony Blair, and Pervez Musharraf yield a unified message: our only option is to eradicate every last nuclear missile. Luckily for us, getting to zero is possible: step by step. Let’s jump-start the change. —Sundance Film Festival

Director

Original

Lucy Walker

Lucy Walker (born in London, United Kingdom) is a British film director, mostly of theatrical feature documentaries. On January 25th, 2011 she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for Waste Land, which she directed. The film has won over thirty awards including Audience Awards at Sundance and Berlin and the IDA’s Best Documentary and Pare Lorentz Awards.

On January 24th, 2012 she received a second consecutive Academy Award nomination, this time in the Best Documentary Short category for The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom, which she directed and produced; the film was also awarded the Short Film Jury Award: Non-Fiction at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.

In June 2012 she was invited to become a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). She is also a member of the British Academy (BAFTA), the Writers’ Guild (WGA) and the Directors’ Guild (DGA).

Early life

Lucy Walker was born in London, United Kingdom, started… read more

Wall

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watchme

23Feb12

Depressing and scary. You realise that just because the Cold War has ended, nuclear disarmament should not take a back seat in modern day politics.

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Brad Scott

21Jun11

Screened in our village tonight as part of #demandzero day (pics: http://ow.ly/5niYL)

Picture of Stephen Campbell

Stephen Campbell

18Jan11

excellent documentary which is in turn informative powerful and downright scary .

Picture of delbertgrady

delbertgrady

4Jan11

Never realised it would be so easy to smuggle uranium into another country and was surprised that the US detectors at ports would not pick the uranium up as it emits a low amount of radiation. Glad Yeltsin was sober on that day in 1995! Could have done without the lecture from Tony Blair though.

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W184

"Life During Wartime," "Farewell," "Salt," More

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W184

Cannes 2010. Lucy Walker's "Countdown to Zero"

By David Hudson on May 19, 2010

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