Indian Point
Directed by Ivy Meeropol
Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant looms just 35 miles from Times Square. With over 50 million people living in close proximity to the aging facility, its continued operation has generated controversy for the surrounding community. In the brewing fight for clean energy and the catastrophic possibilities of complacency, director Ivy Meeropol weaves a startling portrait of our uncertain nuclear future.
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Reviews
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★★★★ review by Ken Rudolph on Letterboxd
Indian Point is a nuclear power plant situated on the Hudson River a few miles north of New York City. For the past couple of years it has been operating without a valid license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and New York state authorities. Needless to say, its very existence has been a cause for NIMBY activists and conservationists concerned with the aging infrastructure and the effects on the Hudson River fish and environment, especially post-Fukushima. This effective advocacy documentary carefully attempts a balanced examination of all the issues involved. Especially pertinent was its examination of the dilemma that the embattled chairman of the NRC was under until his resignation, as he unsuccessfully tried to fight the nuclear industry.
When I started to watch this documentary I was firmly on the side of alternative non-polluting energy sources such as nuclear. However, despite the film's unexciting, straightforward approach to the techniques of documentary film making (eschewing graphics and editorializing), by the end of the film my opinion had definitely shifted to anti-nuclear as it exists now. Quietly, unassumingly, this film had real-world impact on me. One cannot hope for a better outcome from advocacy film making. Yet, maybe because the message was so subtly presented, I found much of the film boring, didactic rather than arousing. Yet it worked, thanks to director Meeropol's steadfast objectivity.
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