Hiroshima Mon Amour Talk with Hannah Holtzman

This year’s commemorative events around the world, as well as the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize being awarded to the hibakusha organization Nihon Hidankyo, have renewed attention to the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons and provide an opportunity to revisit the role of antinuclear art in prompting reflection on the impact of nuclear weapons on civilization.

Drawing on her recent book, Through a Nuclear Lens: France, Japan, and Cinema from Hiroshima to Fukushima (2024), Hannah Holtzman, Ph.D., assistant professor of film and media studies at Sophia University in Tokyo, returns to this classic of world cinema, a model of cultural exchange, to examine what it has meant and might still mean to present and future audiences. (The film will be screened on Oct. 16.)