Dark Circle
CU Boulder receives large grant to digitize Dark Circle out-takes!
The Council on Library and Information Resources provided the grant in August 2026, which will make hours of our historic source material available to the public for the first time. The grant speaks to the relevance of the film to the current and unresolved debates about nuclear power and weapons.
Dark Circle includes the first documentary footage of survivors in Hiroshima and Nagasaki shot by Americans. These stories (which are notably absent from "Oppenheimer") provide crucial information still so painful it is rarely faced. The links between nuclear power and weapons, denied by those who want nuclear power to be seen as clean and green, provide additional context.
The film was first released in 1982 and was re-mastered in HD in 2018. Dark Circle can be streamed on Kanopy or AppleTV.
Winner of the Grand Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and a national Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in News & Documentary, Dark Circle follows the trail of plutonium from the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons facility in Colorado, to the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant in California, to Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. Plutonium, the most toxic substance in the world, links these locations and the people whose lives are irrevocably changed by it. 83 minutes, 16mm color, first released: 1983; revised: 1991; re-mastered at Fotokem in HD in 2018 with assistance from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; now distributed by First Run Features. For a BluRay please email films@pelicanmedia.org. Produced and Directed by Judy Irving, Christopher Beaver, and Ruth Landy
Nagasaki Journey, a half-hour film produced in connection with an international photo exhibit for the 50th commemoration of the atomic bombing, will be screened in Los Alamos New Mexico on August 9th 2025 for the 80th commemoration. See co-director Chris Beaver's description of the film and upcoming screening here. Taking this film, along with Dark Circle, to the heart of the nuclear weapons complex at Los Alamos again emphasizes "What Oppenheimer Left Out."
National Emmy Award; Shortlist, Academy Award; Grand Prize, Non-Fiction, Sundance Film Festival
"Four stars ...completely riveting." —Roger Ebert
"You owe it to yourself to see this chilling documentary. A much needed warning sign
on a very dangerous road. Rated: A." —People Magazine
"Recommended" —Science Books and Films
"This is a great film. I saw it years ago on television and was very moved by it. Years later, I saw
'The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill,' by the same director (Judy Irving). Another excellent film.
It's a classic. Informative yet emotionally wrenching." —From a five-star Amazon review