Time Bombs

2007 | DOCUMENTARY | 46 minutes |

In the spring of 1957, 40 young Canadian soldiers were sent to Nevada on a top secret mission. These young men did not know they would be used as guinea pigs in the most important nuclear testing program of the Cold War. The American military wanted to know how the average soldier would hold up on a nuclear battlefield.

With absolutely no knowledge of the effects of radiation, the young men played war games, sometimes less than 1,000 yards (910 m) away from exploding nuclear weapons — bombs four times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. The effects were devastating. Many of the men fell gravely ill, and some of their children were born with deformities or handicaps.

The controversial operation has never received official recognition from the Canadian government. 50 years after the tests, Time Bombs follows the Atomic Veterans in their quest for recognition from the Canadian government.

Time Bombs Poster

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Credits

Director
Guylaine Maroist
Eric Ruel

Original idea
Pierre Brisson
Véronique Morin

Narration
Vlasta Vrana
Réal Bossé

Director of photography
Steeve Desrosiers,
Douglas Munro, c.s.c.
Jean-François Perreault

Photo editor
Eric Ruel

Sound editor
Louis Dupire
Eric Ruel

Sound mix
Jean-Paul Vialard, ONF

Scriptwriter
Guylaine Maroist

Research
Pierre Brisson
Guylaine Maroist
Véronique Morin

Visual research
Ginette Beauchemin
Eric Ruel

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