Downwind was one of the Official Selections from the Portland Festival of Cinema, Animation & Technology’s 2024 festival that accepted the Filmmaker Mixer Podcast offer to review their work. The feature-length documentary is about the effects of nuclear fallout in Nevada throughout America that came as a result of testing nuclear bombs. It showcases several interviews with people who were affected in some way by the testing. I was alarmed to learn just how widespread and terrifying its effects were, and this testing was something I was unfamiliar with. Even if you are familiar with the topic, the scale of this testing still might alarm you.
The topic of the film was really interesting. Since its focus was on the effects of the nuclear testing, we mostly see interviews with people who were affected by it. I appreciated the diversity in who was interviewed. Two native Americans, a white woman who lost a lot of her family to cancer resulting from nuclear fallout, a comedian, all pushed into activism by what was going on.
We also see interviews with a military reporter and people who worked on a movie that was affected by the fallout, and Michael Douglas, who starred in a movie that had a lot of shocking parallels to an incident that occurred after its release, among several others. There’s just so many different perspectives shown in this film. Some of these people’s testimonies were heart wrenching, others were just fascinating, others were tragic, and of them all came together to make the film feel like a call to action, to inform others about the dangers of nuclear weapons and how poorly our country seems to have handled that issue historically.
My favorite thing about Downwind was probably the choice of music. Downwind’s score is excellent. It felt really professional done and immersive.
-Madelyn, Filmmaker Mixer Correspondent
