(Paris) Hollywood director Oliver Stone defends nuclear energy as a weapon against climate change with the documentary Nuclear Now.
“I try to be scientific. I am a practical man. And everyone should do the same. We should put ideologies aside,” the filmmaker explained to AFP during a visit to Paris.
This two-hour film was presented out of competition at the Venice Film Festival in 2022. With exclusive images of civilian nuclear installations in Russia, France and the United States, Nuclear Now presents itself as a vigorous defense of this source of energy against fossil fuels.
An option which, according to Stone, has proven its effectiveness for decades, while detractors of this energy source argue that the risk of accident is too high and that renewable energies are proving their effectiveness.
The director of Platoon recognizes that he belonged to a generation that mobilized against nuclear energy, like actress Jane Fonda. Opposition to nuclear power is “something that makes us feel good, like virtuous citizens,” but has no scientific basis, he said.
Oliver Stone, whose documentaries on Vladimir Putin and Fidel Castro have sparked controversy, explains that the gestation of Nuclear Now came from reading a book, A Bright Future by Joshua Goldstein and Staffan Qvist, published in 2019. He will be in Cannes in May to present a documentary on Lula.