An Insightful Conversation With Visionary Filmmaker PHILIPPE CARILLO
Philippe Carillo is a French Award Winning Documentary Filmmaker who lived in Hollywood for 14 years. His first documentary “Inside the Garbage of the World” released in 2015 and distributed by Journeyman Pictures in UK, won 3 awards. Then in 2023, he released his second feature documentary “The Fukushima Disaster – The Hidden Side of the Story” distributed by Journeyman Picture UK. The film is now available on iTunes, Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play and Vimeo on Demand.
PHILIPPE CARILLO, CAN YOU TELL US MORE ABOUT YOUR NEWLY RELEASED FILM “THE FUKUSHIMA DISASTER – THE HIDDEN SIDE OF THE STORY”?
I made this 52-minute documentary to expose a number of facts that have been censored from the official narrative in Japan after the meltdown of three reactors at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. It is also about the potential risks of nuclear energy in general, including the possibility of a nuclear accident, the potential for nuclear weapons proliferation, and the long-term environmental and health impacts of nuclear waste.
Additionally, it looks at the economic costs of nuclear energy, and the potential for renewable energy sources to replace nuclear power. It also exposes the lies of the nuclear industry which found an angle to make us believe nuclear energy will save our climate crisis. But as found in the film, the only reason we still have nuclear plants around the world is to build nuclear bombs.
The film argues that the risks of nuclear energy are too great to ignore, and that we must take action now to reduce our reliance on nuclear power. It calls for an end to subsidies for nuclear energy, and for governments to invest more in renewable energy sources or risk the consequences of many nuclear disasters to come.
WHAT MADE YOU MAKE THIS FILM?
I had already come across some data from a researcher, when I was producing my plastic trash film, who told me the radiation will come from the ocean around 2015, on the cost of the US, Canada and ultimately Alaska as well. That was in 2014.
So, I started to research the topic and came up with the name of a controversial former Japan Time journalist named Yoichi Shimatsu, who was very vocal about the Fukushima cover-up. So I contacted him and interviewed him.That’s when everything changed for me. That was the start of a strong interest in the topic and my decision to really make a film. I knew it will be a lot of work because the topic has so many elements connected to it. But I made the decision to take on the challenge.
HOW DID YOU MANAGE TO UNCOVER SO MANY HIDDEN FACTS?
I guess I followed my intuition. I could see and read what has been hidden from the public’s eyes. It was a tremendous amount of data, research, and headache. Nuclear power is not easy to understand. So, then I went to different places and talked to experts, researchers, and whistle blowers who had data that was controversial or let’s say not politically correct.
THE ANIMATION OF THE FILM THAT EXPLAINS NUCLEAR RADIATION WAS REALLY CLEAR AND EDUCATIVE, PROBABLY THE BEST WE HAVE SEEN. HOW DID YOU MANAGE TO MAKE IT?
Well, I had a hard time myself understanding nuclear radiation, so I had to study and find an easier way to pass it on to the general public. I also contacted my friend Randall Mielke, who is a former NASA nuclear scientist, and he helped me writing the script for the animation. I simplified it again and here we go.
I used After Effect mainly to make the animation with different templates. I guess it was good enough because people were saying that they understand now more about how nuclear radiation works and what it does to our bodies.
YOU DID THE EDITING YOURSELF AND YOUR FILM FLOWS VERY WELL WITH THE MUSIC AND EVERYTHING, HOW DID YOU DO THAT?
Well, it took me some time to finish the film. I was actually stuck at 20 minutes of the editing because I wanted to integrate the history of nuclear power, the Chernobyl accident, Marshall Islands Bomb Tests, the Manhattan Project, Hiroshima and Nagasaki and it was a humongous amount of work.
Then I moved to Vanuatu in 2017, an archipelago in the South Pacific. I created a film production company and have done more than 100 short films here since. Then the news came up that the Japanese government and TEPCO were planning to dump the radioactive wastewater into the ocean. It was a wake-up call for me. I then came back to my film and decided to finish it.
I think the film is emotional. It touches people right in the heart, and it also makes others angry because it unveils the true face of the nuclear industry and the damage they create on the human race.
I like to do the editing myself because then I get exactly what I want. Plus, this is a creative process and ideas are flowing as I am doing the editing. I think that part is really where the magic happens.
WHAT RESULT ARE YOU EXPECTING THE FILM TO CREATE?
The film is a call for action. But primarily it is a wake-up call by understanding what is really going on. Then when people understand, some will stand up and do something about it. We need to expose the lies to protect our future. As a human race, we have opened a Pandora ’s Box and we don’t know how to close it.
It started with the Manhattan Project, and it may end with an unlivable planet because of a high level of radiation. We don’t want that. We need to protect what we have. We need to expose the people who brought us to this point of potential no return. We need to stop them. For our life, and the life of our kids and future generations.
