If You Love This Planet
| If You Love This Planet | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Terre Nash |
| Produced by | Edward Le Lorrain |
| Music by | Karl du Plessis |
| Cinematography | André-Luc Dupont Susan Trow Don Virgo |
| Distributed by | National Film Board of Canada (NFB) |
| Release date(s) | 1982 |
| Running time | 26 minutes |
| Country | Canada |
| Language | English |
If You Love This Planet is a 1982 short documentary film recording a lecture given to SUNY Plattsburgh students by physician and anti-nuclear activist Dr. Helen Caldicott about the dangers posed by nuclear weapons. The movie was directed by Terre Nash and produced by Edward Le Lorrain for Studio D, the women's studio of the National Film Board of Canada. Studio D head Kathleen Shannon was executive producer.
Released during the term of the Reagan administration and at the height[citation needed] of Cold War nuclear tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union, If You Love This Planet was officially designated as "foreign political propaganda" by the U.S. Department of Justice and suppressed in the United States.[1] The subsequent uproar over that action gave the film a publicity boost; it went on to win the 1982 Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject.[2] It appears that the first cinema showing of the film in Britain did not occur until April 2008, when it was screened by the London Socialist Film Co-op.[3]
[edit] Book and radio program
Helen Caldicott, M.D., later wrote a book of the same name, If You Love This Planet: A Plan to Heal the Earth (1992). A new edition of this book was published by W.W. Norton in September 2009. In addition, Dr. Caldicott hosts a weekly radio program called If You Love This Planet, which debuted in July 2008. The program was first aired by Pacifica Radio station KPFT-FM in Houston and now plays weekly on dozens of U.S., Canadian and Australian stations. Each new episode (plus all archived programs) can also be heard on www.ifyoulovethisplanet.org. The series focuses on the threats to human survival posed by nuclear weapons, nuclear power, global warming, toxic pollution, deforestation, and other public health issues.
[edit] References
- ^ Censored Films and Television.
- ^ "If You Love This Planet". The New York Times. http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/300477/If-You-Love-This-Planet/details. Retrieved 2008-12-01.
- ^ Matthew Hays, "Montreal Oscar Stories: Two of the city's award-winners reminisce" Montreal Mirror, March 21, 1997. Accessed 2008.12.18.
[edit] External links
- If You Love This Planet at the Internet Movie Database
- Watch If You Love this Planet at NFB.ca
- If You Love This Planet at AllRovi
- If You Love This Planet Radio Program
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- Canadian films
- English-language films
- 1982 films
- Canadian documentary films
- Canadian short films
- National Film Board of Canada documentaries
- Best Documentary Short Subject Academy Award winners
- Documentary films about nuclear war and weapons
- Short documentary films
- 1980s documentary films
- Anti–nuclear weapons movement
