Yes, it’s beautiful out there. Probably the Boulder region’s best summer in recent memory: cool temperatures (until recently), lots of rain, and no smoke to speak of. It’s lovely. But not too far east, it’s tornadoes and hail. To the south, heat domes push into the triple digits. And to the north, a massive wildfire has displaced more than 100,000 people and blotted out the skies along the east coast.

“We’ve run out of time to be afraid,” filmmaker Oliver Stone says in his new documentary, Nuclear Now, which will open the 2023 Boulder Environmental / Nature / Outdoors Film Festival at the Dairy Arts Center. Founded by Richard Paradise, Boulder ENOFF is a four-day (July 13-16) marriage of activism and entertainment, the kind of soirée where intelligent people talk about potential solutions to serious problems while walking the green carpet.

That makes Nuclear Now the ideal kickoff for a festival tackling the sticky side of doing right. Yes, Stone is a filmmaker who loves to court controversy. And, sure, nuclear-powered anything is a touchy subject in a town less than 20 miles north of a former nuclear munitions plant. But we have to turn somewhere to stop the worldwide damage from burning fossil fuels while filling in the energy gap left by wind and solar. For Stone, that answer is nuclear power.

And Stone knows most of his viewers are scared of that proposition. They associate nuclear with Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Chernobyl and Rocky Flats, and Blinky, the three-eyed fish in The Simpsons. There is no shortage of nuclear doomsday in media, and with the release of the big-budget blockbuster Oppenheimer due out this month, it’s not going away.

But as Stone and the scientists he interviews point out, the real threat remains climate change. One scientist likens it to the scene in Stand By Me, where the two boys are stuck on a high bridge with an oncoming train. Neither wants to jump off the bridge into the river below to avoid the train. But, as the scientist points out: “The jump is scary, but it’s the train that’s gonna kill you.”

And Boulder ENOFF’s line-up features plenty of those metaphorical trains. In Youth v. Gov, the younger generation speaks up for their right to a safe and stable planet, while the investigative documentary The Grab uncovers the political maneuvering of global land grabs and the economic and humanitarian fallout they cause.

Thankfully, not everything playing Boulder ENOFF is dire. Many of the titles celebrate the beauty, majesty, and diversity of our world, not to mention the tenacity and resourcefulness of the human spirit. These movies make you want to get outside and enjoy nature while you can.

There’s a great big beautiful tomorrow coming, and if you’re looking to embrace it instead of fear it, these movies will help. 

Nuclear Now (2022)
Directed by Oliver Stone
Written by Oliver Stone, Joshua S. Goldstein
Produced by Fernando Sulichin, Rob Wilson
Abramorama, Not rated, Running time 105 minutes, Premiered Sept. 9, 2022 at the Venice Film Festival

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The above article first appeared in the pages of Boulder Weekly Vol. 30, No. 47, “Racing the clock.”