RADIOACTIVE: The Women of Three Mile Island, is an award-winning documentary about the 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear reactor meltdown, the worst commercial nuclear accident in U.S. history. It focuses on never-before-told stories of four intrepid homemakers, two lawyers who took the local community’s case all the way to the Supreme Court, and a young female journalist who was caught in the radioactive crossfire. (USA, 2023, 76 min., color, DCP | Dir. Heidi Hutner)
RADIOACTIVE features activist and actor Jane Fonda – whose film, China Syndrome, (a fictional account of a nuclear meltdown), opened 12 days before the real disaster in Pennsylvania, and breaks the story of a radical new health study (in process now) that may finally expose the truth of the meltdown. For over forty years, the nuclear industry has done all in their power to cover up their criminal actions, claiming, as they always do, “No one was harmed and nothing significant happened.”
In this thrilling feminist documentary, indomitable women fight back against the nuclear industry Goliath to expose one of the worst cover-ups in U.S. history.
Meet the Filmmaker: Following the film there will be a discussion with director, writer and producer Heidi Hutner, and environmental attorney and Rivertown Film board member Susan Shapiro). Their bios are below.
Our Community Sponsors for RADIOACTIVE: The Women of Three Mile Island are Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition (IPSEC) and the Radiation and Public Health Project (RPHP).
Heidi Hutner, Director, Writer, and Producer, is a professor of Literature, Sustainability, Women’s and Gender Studies at Stony Brook University, and a scholar of nuclear and environmental history, literature, film, and ecofeminism. She is the winner of Sierra Club Long Island’s 2015 Environmentalist of the Year Award. At Stony Brook University, she teaches courses on the environmental literature, history, and film. Hutner chaired the Sustainability Studies Program for six years and was Associate Dean in the School of Marine, Atmospheric Science, and Sustainability. Hutner publishes widely as a writer and journalist on nuclear, environmental, environmental justice, and gender issues. As a journalist, she writes for the New York Times, Ms. Magazine, Public Radio International, Longreads, AEON, DAME, Spirituality and Health, Mom’s Clean Air Force, Yes!, Tikkun, and more. Hutner produces the popular web video show, Coffee with Hx2, in which she interviews world experts, Nobel Peace Prize winners, McArthur Genius Fellows, and other luminaries on sustainability and environmental issues. She recently appeared on the NBC News Think episode, “Clean Water is a Human Right” and gave a Tedx on “Eco-Grief and Ecofeminism.” Hutner was the associate producer of the off-Broadway climate-change musical, Endangered. For more about Heidi Hutner (and full list of her projects/publications), see her website: HeidiHutner.com.
Susan Hillary (Shapiro) is a filmmaker and environmental attorney in Rockland County, focusing on water protection. Shortly after 9/11 she along with other formed IPSEC worked to close down Indian Point, which was successfully shuttered a few years ago. She participated in the Obama’s Presidential Blue Ribbon committee on nuclear waste, was a fellow in EPA’s Reach program, and is currently a board member of Radiation and Public Health Project which studies radiation impacts on human health. Susan is also a board member of Rivertown Films.
Radioactive positively glows in the dark when it focuses its lens on an intrepid group of ordinary American housewives/mothers summoned to their finest hour in confronting the deception and indifference of the establishment, notably the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
In a world where grassroots activism seems to have been hijacked by darker and more sinister forces, Radioactive: The Women of Three Mile Island celebrates the love and fury of insurrecEtionists like these intrepid souls who speak truth to power without counting the cost except as it impacts the lives and health of their families.
Radioactive won both hearts and tears this weekend at New York’s Dances With Film Festival, where it captured the audience award for Best Film, a testimony to the deep emotional impact it left in its wake. This is a film that should be rated in supernovas, not stars.
Ed Moran, Cinema Daily USA
