“It seems, unavoidably, to read as an allegory about artificial intelligence.”
—The Wall Street Journal
“A provocative history that brings to life the dangers that arise when government secrecy and control overwhelm press freedom.”
— Foreign Policy

Eighty years after two devastating strikes usher the world into the nuclear age, BOMBSHELL explores how the U.S. government creates a false narrative about the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II. Through propaganda, censorship, and by co-opting the press, the government presents a benevolent picture of atomic power, minimizing the horrific human toll of the bombings. 
But not every journalist toes the official line. BOMBSHELL sheds light on the efforts of a handful of intrepid reporters –among them a Black pool reporter, a Japanese American staffer for the United Press, a Japanese photographer and a magazine freelancer – as they attempt to pierce the official narrative and inform the world about the human cost of nuclear weapons. Their long-overlooked perspective underscores the essential role of journalists in crafting the story of the atomic bomb, as well as what is lost when independent reporting is suppressed and “truth” bends to the will of those in power.

Duration: 82 minutes
Produced by: Ben Loeterman, Gaia De Simoni

Edited by: Matt Shelley-Reade, Peter Rhodes

Written & Directed by: Ben Loeterman

Narrated by: Ann Curry

Original production funding: National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)
HOST A SCREENING
DONATE TO THE IMPACT CAMPAIGN
Submit
Thank you for subscribing to receive updates on Bombshell!