Film Screening: In the Dark of the Valley

In 1959, a partial nuclear meltdown at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory—just 30 miles from Downtown Los Angeles—caused a devastating radiation leak. The disaster was concealed from the public for two decades, and the site has never been fully cleaned up. In the Dark of the Valley follows the community members fight for accountability and remediation, led by Melissa Bumstead, a mother whose daughter was twice diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia. The award-winning documentary connects one community’s struggle to a national pattern of nuclear contamination, corporate negligence, and environmental injustice. 

This screening is presented in conjunction with Atomic Dragons, on view at Pitzer College Art Galleries, and the symposium Art, Science, and the Nuclear Legacy on April 4. This program is copresented with Tamara Cedré, visiting professor of photography at Pitzer College.