Event

Atomic Mom

Atomic Mom is a feature-length documentary about two women, both mothers, who have very different experiences of the atom bomb.

Pauline Silvia, who was a biologist in the Navy in the early 1950's and was sent to the Nevada Test Site. Pauline witnessed several detonations with little or no protection. At 23 years old, she was one of the few women scientists on an elite team of researchers. After decades of silence, Pauline is in a crisis of conscience about the work she did, work that involved animal testing. She reveals some of the grim and dark secrets of the U.S. atomic testing program. The other woman, Emiko Okada, is a Hiroshima survivor who was eight years old when the bomb was dropped. Her twelve-year-old sister was never found. After many years of her own silence, Ms. Okada gives testimony of her experience as a peace activist committed to education and disarmament. Knowing the work that Pauline did, Ms. Okada folded origami peace cranes as a gift for Pauline. This exchange is much more than an olive branch with a beautifully potent message of peace.