The Atomic Café

As a material, film is constantly changing. In archives, these changes are documented via condition reports. Sometimes the encounter between the film print and the person inspecting it can feel like a revelation. In this series, filmmaker Juan González would like to share his personal moments of discovery experienced during his time inspecting film prints at Arsenal. Condition Report #4 focuses on THE ATOMIC CAFÉ (USA 1982) by Jane Loader, Kevin Rafferty and Pierce Rafferty, which shows on the basis of archive material how the US public was called upon to "stop worrying and love the bomb" as indicated in the subheading of Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove. Once again today, the realities of nuclear destruction have resurfaced. Perhaps it makes sense to counter the attitudes of dogmatism, hubris, and spectacle in the current age by reacquainting ourselves with the grotesque madness of this man-made system of total destruction. (Juan González)